Project Detail

Love Is The Devil

Synopsis

It is 1971 and Francis Bacon is in Paris on the occasion of the triumphant retrospective at the Grand Palais that is to confirm his status as one of the twentieth century's most important artists. At the same time that he is being acclaimed by officials and the press, George Dyer, his model and lover of seven years is in a nearby hotel room swallowing the last of the lethal cocktail of drugs and alcohol that will prove to be his final act in this world. As Dyer disappears into blackness he falls back in time to the moment in 1964 when, in attempting to burgle Bacon's studio, he first encountered the painter who was to absorb him into his life and work.

This tragic love story is set among the bohemian demi-monde of London's Soho where Francis Bacon was a charismatic figure at the centre of a coterie of characters who frequented the infamous Colony Rooms. These include Muriel Belcher, who ran the club, Isabel Rawsthorne, Henrietta Moraes, photographer John Deakin and writer Daniel Farson. Love Is The Devil traces the development of Francis Bacon and George Dyer's ill-fated relationship and, in a series of extraordinary visual sequences, constructs a portrait of an artist that dramatically reveals the needs and desires that motivated his art.

Details

Year: 1998
Type of film: Features
Running time: 90 mins
Format: 35mm Kodak
Director: John Maybury
Producer: Ben Gibson, Frances-Ann Solomon
Director of Photography: John Mathieson
Principal cast: Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig and Tilda Swinton
Executive Production Executive: Christopher Collins Screen Writer: John Maybury

Genre

LGBTQIA+ Drama

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

BFI Production 29 Rathbone Street London W1P 1AG Tel: 020 7636 5587 Fax: 020 7580 9456 E Mail: production@bfi.org.uk

Sales Company

BFI Films 21 Stephen Street London W1P 1PL Tel: 020 7255 1444 Fax: 020 7580 5830 E Mail: sales@bfi.org.uk

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