Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998)
- Starring:
- Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig, (more)
- Director(s):
- John Maybury
- Theatrical MPAA Rating:
- NR
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This British biographical drama probes the life of painter Francis Bacon (1909-1992), critically acclaimed as the outstanding British painter of the latter half of the 20th Century. This unsympathetic portrait of Bacon (Derek Jacobi) begins when George Dyer (Daniel Craig), a small-time criminal from working-class East End environs, drops through a skylight to rob Bacon's studio -- and is ordered into bed by Bacon. The two become a familiar couple at Bacon's hangout, the Colony Room in Soho. Bacon's sexual interests lean toward S&M, but as the cruel Bacon loses interest in Dyer and begins to look elsewhere, the couple splits. Left to his own devices, Dyer turns to drugs and alcohol -- and a tragic suicide. Visual grotesqueries and a trancelike Ryuichi Sakamoto music score capture the essence of Bacon's work (although paintings by Bacon are not seen onscreen here). The film is told in the form of a flashback from Bacon's successful 1971 retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris to a period in the mid-'60s. Bacon biographer Daniel Farson (The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon) served as consultant on the film. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Theatrical Feature Running Time:
- 88 mins
Complete Cast:
- Derek Jacobi - Francis Bacon
- Tilda Swinton - Muriel Belcher
- Adrian Scarborough - Daniel Farson
- Annabel Brooks - Henrietta Moraes
- Daniel Craig - George Dyer
- Anne Lambton - Isabel Rawsthorne
- Karl Johnson - John Deakin
- Richard Newbold - Blond Billy
- Director(s):
- John Maybury
- Writer(s):
- John Maybury
- Producer(s):
- Chiara Menage
- Theatrical MPAA Rating:
- NR(Nudity, Adult Language, Violence, Sexual Situations)
- Closed Captioning:
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- Subtitles:
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