UK

Synopsis

LOVE IS THE DEVIL opens in 1971 at the Grand Palais in Paris, where controversial British artist Francis Bacon is welcomed as the «greatest living painter» by officials and the press, at his triumphant retrospective. As the ceremony takes place, George Dyer, Bacon's model and lover of seven years, takes a cocktail of pills and alcohol in their hotel room.

Slumping into blackness, Dyer recalls the fateful day 1964 when, as minor East End villain, he attempts to burgle Bacon's house. But as he breaks through the studio's skylight, he falls into the studio where he meets Bacon. From then on his life takes on an entirely different course.

A powerful and dangerous relationship develops between the flamboyant artist and the man who becomes his lover and the model for some of his most intense and celebrated paintings.

Bacon's bohemian coterie of artists, rent boys and drunks continually compete for his attention - an assortiment of witty but often grotesque individuals - who enjoy giving their florid commentary to Bacon as the turbulent events of his life unfold. Bacon basks in this glory.

But as his fame and fortune increases and he reaches the height of his artistic powers, Dyer is gradually bled dry by drink and drugs as he struggles to become accepted into Bacon's sophisticated demimonde.

Director's Biography

JOHN MAYBURY is a filmmaker and an artist. During the 1970s he shot his first films in and around the London punk scene and by the early 1980s he was a leading light in the British avant-garde film and art worlds.
He started making Super 8 shorts and features while at art school during the late 1970s before going on to work with Derek Jarman as a costume and set designer on films. John admits that working with Jarman showed him for the first time, «what grown-up film-making was all about.»

He cites Jarman as an inspiration for his work and describes him as a «great collaborator», who liked to surround himself with people whom he allowed extraordinary freedom.

«On WAR REQUIEM, Derek handed me the rushes which I had to search through to choose images. lt was his way of deputising but it also gave his work a great energy. Working for Derek wasn't like having a job, it actually made you feel part of something. That was his great gift, he was very generous in that kind of way.»

He designed sets and costumes for JUBILEE (1977), he edited THE LAST OF ENGLAND (1987) and both designed and edited the war sequences for Jarman's version of Benjamin Britten's WAR REQUIEM (1988).
During the 1980s he exhibited paintings, films and videos at the ICA London and collaborated with the Michael Clark dance company, Psychic TV and performance artist Leigh Bowery.

He has directed many videos including those for Neneh Cherry, Everything But The Girl, Boy George, Morrissey and collaborated with Sinead O'Connor on Nothing Compares 2U, which won four MTV awards including Best Video and a Grammy nomination. Maybury created his personal view of the 1980s for the South Bank Show in 1989, followed by two fashion films for Rifat Ozbek.

In 1992 Tilde Swinton approached Maybury to create a cinematic Interpretation of Manfred Karge's stage-play MAN TO MAN, which went on to win the International Critics Prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival that year.
In 1993 he wrote and directed REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS FAST which won a host of awards including the Los Angeles Critics Circle Award for Best Independent/Experimental Film. In 1995 he continued his working relationship with Tilde Swinton which resulted in the video installation MY MIND IS RACING at the Barbican Art Gallery and they then collaborated on the documentation of Swinton's performance installation THE MAYBE at the Serpentine Gallery.

In 1996 his two films MALEDICTA ELECTRONICA and GENETRON screened at the ICA, the Tate Gallery and the Anthony D'Offay Gallery, London.
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Cast & Crew

Directed by: John Maybury

Written by: John Maybury

Produced by: Chiara Menage

Cinematography: John Mathieson

Editing: Daniel Goddard

Production Design: Alan MacDonald

Costume Design: Annie Symons

Cast: Derek Jacobi (Francis Bacon), Daniel Craig (George Dyer), Tilda Swinton (Muriel Belcher)

Nominations and Awards

  • Feature Film Selection 1998