1-World Festival of Foreign Films
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"Love is the Devil: A Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon"
1998
Directed by John Maybury

 John Maybury's dark, frequently brilliant drama stars Derek Jacobi as the artist and Daniel Craig as George Dyer, the amateur boxer and thief who became Bacon's lover. The film focuses on their relationship to provide a view of Bacon's destructive, claustrophobic world. "Though Maybury was denied the use of Bacon's paintings, Love Is the Devil evokes the artist's visual signature with astonishing and disturbing results: actors' faces, distorted by barroom mirrors and cracked windows, morph into twisted masks; their bodies seem to be ripped open, as if consumed by fire" (Justine Elias, The Village Voice). Tilda Swinton co-stars.  88 minutes.