Love Is The Devil - Study For A Portrait Of Francis Bacon (DVD)

...into the sordid and tragic love life of a whiney drama queen with a paint brush and his severely mentally depressed and unstable and all around lousy lover who committed suicide. Grasping and flailing about like a drowning man it searches for some type of meaning. I am relevant, I am British, hear me roar!

The basic story told is that George Dyer (Daniel Craig) falls through a skylight of Francis Bacon’s (Derek Jacobi) studio one ...
...even the underwear) cloying gay love story.

Points taken off for all the sordid cruel stuff without any hint or any clue why either of these characters would hang around abusing each other like this. I mean come on, there had to be some remote emotional involvements?
Don't even get me started on being forced to watch some brief glimpses of pretty dang nasty @ss sex scenes.
(Oh boy! Fat gay guys in not so tighty whiteys!) ... more

In 1998 John Maybury wrote and directed this squeamish and I guess supposedly shocking portrayal of the much-heralded British artist Francis Bacon.

A self taught and bitterly gay Francis Bacon is well known for his nightmarish paintings and this movie loves to use and abuse the visual sometimes confusing artistic stylings of the man himself, a naked man covered in wet paint sporadically jumps about at key emotional moments.

My partner Jason kept strolling by right at these times and finally stopped and asked "What The Hell Are You Watching?"
Jason just does not understand ART, the surrealism, the bad lighting, the British accents, the pale skin and untoned naked bodies flopping around like dead fish.
Poor Jason ***.

The Story

This is ART PEOPLE! Really Truly ART! you can hear the director screaming ART! at the top of his lungs.
This movie tries desperately to delve deep into the sordid and tragic love life of a whiney drama queen with a paint brush and his severely mentally depressed and unstable and all around lousy lover who committed suicide. Grasping and flailing about like a drowning man it searches for some type of meaning. I am relevant, I am British, hear me roar!

The basic story told is that George Dyer (Daniel Craig) falls through a skylight of Francis Bacon’s (Derek Jacobi) studio one night in a failed attempt at burglary or something to that effect.
Francis after eyeing the fallen Dyer offers him anything he wants as long as he agrees to a roll in the proverbial ‘hay’ with him. Well that was right to the point if you ask me.

This is not what you would call a lighthearted gay romp of a romance here BUT HEY! At least this is not that ignorant slop fest film "Big Eden" or that equally pandering Hollywood schlock "In & Out".

Anyway I guess that it was hot sex and all (I have no idea, I looked away after seeing dirty saggy underwear and flabby butts, that's just REAL and this is REAL ART) because Dyer decides to hang around and next thing we know they are starting down that tragic 60's gay path of dysfunctional matrimony.
(For Gay social reference see the movie "Boys In The Band".)
The sadomasochism, the alcoholism, the self-involvement, the down right evil things they do and say to each other, it will grind on you till you are unsure who should die that much foretold horrible painful death first and how soon can this be arranged?

Ok, it’s over what more can I say?

In brief (or is that briefs?)…

Points from me for being a non-white washed (not even the underwear) cloying gay love story.

Points taken off for all the sordid cruel stuff without any hint or any clue why either of these characters would hang around abusing each other like this. I mean come on, there had to be some remote emotional involvements?
Don't even get me started on being forced to watch some brief glimpses of pretty dang nasty @ss sex scenes.
(Oh boy! Fat gay guys in not so tighty whiteys!)

Oh well, another 'trying to be intelligent' movie loses itself in artistic visions and emotional trauma-o-drama-o-rama but refuses to bother giving a complete picture of a real life good or bad gay relationship.

What else is new?

Could you possibly watch anything worse? Sure for a truly pointless Gay Drama Queen movie, also written and directed and get this! ACTED IN by the same loser, that makes alcoholism into a funny and relatively minor character flaw sorta like PMS...

"All Over The Guy "

For a much better but non-gay tragic romance...

"Sid & Nancy"

*** I am joking, Jason loves David Cronenberg "Crash" / "Naked Lunch" and David Lynch "Twin Peaks" / "Blue Velvet" he is a redneck with very good taste. 

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