Love is the Devil
John Maybury
- 1998
- Great-Britain, France, Japan
- Biopic
- 1h27mn
- Original version with French subtitles
- Color
A scrutiny of moments in Francis Bacon’s life, and how intimacy and artistic career are entwined and feed off one another, notably through his impetuous relationship with his lover George Dyer, a former small-time crook.
Rarely has a film so well captured the artist’s perception, as if Bacon himself was filming his life. Known for his music viéos (The Smiths with Derek Jarman, or Cindy Lauper and Sinead O’Connor), John Maybury proposes a nightmarish biopic that embraces the painter’s spirit through an extensive use of anamorphosis and monstrous visions, thus fusing the man and his work. If Derek Jacobi, literally possessed by his character, totally embodies Bacon, Daniel Craig, as the depressive bad boy in love, is truly poignant.
Credits
- With : Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig, Tilda Swinton, Anne Lambton, Adrian Scarborough...
- Screenplay : John Maybury
- Photography : John Mathieson
- Editing : Daniel Goddard
- Music by : Ryūichi Sakamoto
- Production : Takashi Asai, Ben Gibson, Patrice Haddad, Chiara Menage, Frances-Anne Solomon
