Love is the devil: study for a portrait of Francis Bacon

Love is the Devil: A Study For A Portrait of Francis Bacon is indeed a portrait in the style of controversial British painter Bacon. Like Bacon’s confronting yet compelling portraits, John Maybury’s film intensely focuses on its subject - revelling in distortion and pain. The film follows the turbulent, sado-masochistic relationship Bacon (Derek Jacobi) had with George Dwyer (Daniel Craig), who he meets when he accidently stumbles upon Dwyer attempting to burgle Bacon’s meagre apartment. Francis simply says to George: “Take off your clothes. Come to bed and you can have whatever you want”. The relationship has a destructive effect on the passive George who feels uncomfortable with Bacon’s eccentric friends (Tilda Swinton is especially creepy as one of this coterie), and who is continually tortured by Bacon’s sadistic enjoyment of pain and suffering. Derek Jacobi and Daniel Craig are excellent as the two main characters.