| Love
is the Devil
John Maybury UK
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| With Love is the Devil, John Maybury acknowledges that he is moving toward "conventional cinema." Best known as an experimental filmmaker in the Derek Jarman mould, Maybury now wants "to reach as wide an audience as possible." Not that his new film, which charts the turbulent relationship between artist Francis Bacon (Derek Jacobi) and his East End gangster boyfriend George Dyer (Daniel Craig) , bears much resemblance to the mainstream "biopic." |  |
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An unsettling score (by Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto), and often hallucinatory effects (which mimic the disorienting quality of Bacon's paintings) add to the prevailing sense of menace. "Nobody," Maybury argues, "can deny the dark side of Bacon." Love Is The Devil, Maybury points out, is as much about Dyer as about Bacon. "The magnetism and power of an artist like Bacon can absorb other people and they either sink or swim. The tragedy of the story for me is that Dyer obviously and inevitably sinks." Even before shooting began, the film ran into controversy. The Arts Council turned down Maybury's original application for funding, claiming that it was too early to make a movie about Bacon. Malcolm McDowell, who was signed up to play Bacon, pulled out only weeks before shooting began. Various cultural mandarins took exception to the language in the script. Maybury countered the criticisms, pointing out that he was merely being true to the way that Bacon and his cronies behaved and spoke. Muriel Belcher (played by Tilda Swinton), the acidulous hostess of a notorious Soho drinking den, really did call any customer she liked 'cunty.' Photographer John Deakin (Karl Johnson) really was a sponger and a drunk. "I haven't made a biopic," Maybury repeats, "this is not the life of Francis Bacon. It deals with one relationship, with one relatively short period in Bacon's life." His favourite paintings by Bacon are those of George Dyer. "There is a tenderness and sensitivity in them which completely belies the tags that are always attached to Bacon – the existential angst, grief and horror. The way he handles the paint is incredibly beautiful. I see the hand of a lover caressing a lover." Geoffrey Macnab |
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