Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998)

Biography of British painter Francis Bacon focuses on his relationship with his lover, George Dyer, a former small time crook.

Director:

John Maybury

Writer:

John Maybury

Stars:

Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig, Tilda Swinton

7 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Derek Jacobi	...	Francis Bacon
Daniel Craig	...	George Dyer
Tilda Swinton	...	Muriel Belcher
Anne Lambton	...	Isabel Rawsthorne
Adrian Scarborough	...	Daniel Farson
Karl Johnson	...	John Deakin
Annabel Brooks	...	Henrietta Moraes
Richard Newbould	...	Blonde Billy (as Richard Newbold)
Ariel de Ravenel	...	French Official
Tallulah	...	Ian Board
Andy Linden	...	Ken Bidwell
David Kennedy	...	Joe Furneval
Gary Hume	...	Volker Dix
Damian Dibben	...	Brighton Rent Boys
Antony Cotton	...	Brighton Rent Boys

Storyline

In the 1960s, British painter Francis Bacon (1909-1992) surprises a burglar and invites him to share his bed. The burglar, a working class man named George Dyer, thirty years younger than Bacon, accepts. Bacon finds Dyer's amorality and innocence attractive, introducing him to his Soho pals. In their sex life, Dyer dominates, Bacon is the masochist. Dyer's bouts with depression, his drinking, pill popping, and his Satanic nightmares strain the relationship, as does his pain with Bacon's casual infidelities. Bacon paints, talks with wit, and, as Dyer spins out of control, begins to find him tiresome. Could Bacon care less?

---

Plot Keywords:

male frontal nudity | male full frontal nudity | female removes her clothes | female nudity | female frontal nudity | 

---

Taglines:

Study for a portrait of Francis Bacon.

---

Genres:

Biography | Drama | Romance

---

Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Strand Releasing

Country:

UK France Japan USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

7 October 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$63,202, 11 October 1998

Gross USA:

$343,023

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC Films, British Film Institute (BFI), Arts Council of England

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Several of the extras, including Daniel Farson and Sandy Fawkes, were real-life acquaintances of Francis Bacon.

---

Quotes

Francis Bacon: When I went into the house of pleasure, I didn't stay in the room where they celebrate acceptable modes of loving in the bourgeois style. I went into the rooms which are kept secret and I leaned and lay on their beds. I went into the rooms which are kept secret which they consider it shameful even to name. But there is no such shame for me because then, what sort of poet, and what sort of artist would I be?

---

Connections

Referenced in Miles (2016)

---

Soundtracks

Time On My Hands
Performed by Al Bowlly
Written by Vincent Youmans (as Youmans), Harold Adamson (as Adamson) & Mack Gordon (as Gordon)

User Reviews

compelling character portrait

John Maybury's film presents artist Francis Bacon as an uncaring, disturbed, unhinged, genius who used people and life to feed his bizarre artistic talent. Even the way the film is shot (distorted images, odd angles, flashes of colour) shouts 'artist'. Against this backdrop the story of Bacon's life is secondary.

Derek Jacobi plays Bacon, in a radical departure from the work he is best known for - in fact, this film was completed while he was regularly on television as brother Cadfael. He is excellent in a deeply unsympathetic role. Daniel Craig, as his lover, nemesis, and muse, is also very good. Tilda Swinton is the best of a supporting cast of oddball characters.

This film is ultimately frustrating, difficult, and perhaps a pointless exercise as far as giving us any lasting impression of Bacon's character. But, like his well-known paintings, it is snatches of images you will remember.