To me, this movie is perfection.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Rarely seen English film from 1998 about which I can can only say I don't know much about art films, but I know what I like. This one is is set in a drab and austere not very swinging 1960s London where crook George Dyer (Daniel Craig) goes from burglary to buggery with artist Francis Bacon (a wonderful Derek Jacobi). No real drama here, just consistently imaginative camera-work (blurred around the edges when the characters are getting drunk at the colony club), or the odd standout moment such as Bacon brushing his teeth with Vim (a white powdery bath cleaner). I like his line: "We all have nightmares, but they can't be as horrific as life". It's the sort of drama the late Derek Jarman used to make - only more watchable.

Taking a lemon and eating it whole: swirling the sour, acrid juice and pulp around in your mouth and savoring the burn; chewing the tough skin and reveling in the pure bitterness. That's the most fitting analogy I can think of for Francis Bacon's approach to both his life and his art, if you are to believe his story as John Maybury has chronicled it in the biopic LOVE IS THE DEVIL.Having had only the most peripheral exposure to Bacon's work and knowing even less about the man's life, I have to admit that my interest in seeing the film was mostly prurient (after all, Daniel Craig IS naked in it), but it most definitely left me with a pressing need for sunshine and cute, fluffy bunnies after all was said and done.Brilliant actor Derek Jacobi draws a razor-sharp portrait of a man whose penchant for self-loathing and the active contempt for everyone else in his life are the only reasons why he even bothers to get up in the morning; that and spending every other free moment trying to find the simple beauty behind life's darkest horrors and transferring it to canvas. Not the most pleasant character to spend ninety minutes of your life with, but a little research will inform you ahead of time that this movie will never be confused with "The Sound Of Music."The opening sequence actually telegraphs the entire story: ne'er-do-well-burglar George Dyer (Craig) tumbles through a skylight into Bacon's studio, and rather than seeing flashes of objects ripe for the taking, George is treated to what appear to be glimpses into Hell - flashes of distorted bodies, streaks of blood-red, raw meat, faces and mouths distended in horror or agony. He's just seen some of the materials that Francis works with to create his 'art,' and he's barely had time to recover from the shock when he is confronted by the man himself, who beckons him with a proposition: come share his bed, and he can have anything he wants. And so begins their twisted, sadomasochistic relationship.It's obvious that the roughly handsome George, with his street sensibility and working man's background, is in over his head with the monstrous and monstrously self-centered artist. But it becomes even more apparent when he falls in with George's scabrous, gargoyle-like friends as well, who come across as Algonquin "round-table" types who have even more pretensions and less of a pedigree than Mrs. Parker's storied associates.Throughout the film, which does come across at times as pretentiously arty, it does seem a bit strange that none of Bacon's actual work ever makes an appearance. Considering the subject matter as it's presented, this might not be all that surprising. It would've been more of a shock if the filmmakers actually had obtained permission from Bacon's estate to use his work. After all, on the surface this could be perceived as nothing more than yet another tired tale of two degenerate, amoral, self-destructive gay men - just more fodder to be used as ammunition by fundamentalist-based homophobes; an example of how "they" live and what "they're" really like.As has often been said, there's a fine line between madness and genius, and LOVE IS THE DEVIL blurs the lines completely, daring to propose that one cannot exist without the other. But the film is just as much about Dyer, the neophyte, and his own descent into insanity and despair, as he is gradually infected by Bacon's own black-hearted view of the world. Which is why this won't be everyone's cup of poison. Jacobi bravely plays Bacon with barely a single trace of sympathy, while it's equally hard to identify with Craig's Dyer, who seems doomed to oblivion from the start.To sum it up, LOVE IS THE DEVIL seems to be geared more towards those art aficionados who already have a pretty well-informed grasp of Bacon's art and are more curious about his personal history, (with plenty of dramatic liberties taken, of course.) It may also be more attractive to viewers who are into watching character studies that feature great actors, of which this is definitely one. Now I'd like to see a documentary or even another biography that focuses more on Bacon's art and its impact on his peers and the art world in general, and less about the man and his tortured private life.But not for a while, thank you very much.

This film makes "Bent" seem cheerful.It's hard to believe Francis Bacon could have been as hateful and negative as this. Worst was leaving his lover (for want of a better word) George Dyer out in the rain while a sadistic renter had his way with Bacon. Sorry, worst was his flippant remark when Andy Warhol (?) sympathised over Dyer's recent suicide.The story, and apparently the life, lacked the redeeming wit of Joe Orton's, as told in "Prick Up Your Ears". Unlike his close counterpart Kenneth Halliwell, there was no suggestion that Dyer was Bacon's muse or had given him more than visual inspiration. I got to wish - at least in the film - that Dyer had taken to Bacon with a hammer before killing himself, as Halliwell did to Orton.Yes, the film is fragmented and wild, like Bacon's paintings. But is that kind of imitation helpful to understand the painter? We got to see remarkably few actual Bacon paintings, and none of those for which he is famous.Best line: "Champagne for my real friends. Real pain for my sham friends."

"Love Is The Devil" stirs me to scope out James Bond now, Daniel Craig's an exciting choice I must say: content over celebrity.In response to the viewer who complained about the dislocated scenes that may or may not be relevant to the whole, the distorted lens... this is a film about a real painter. What is so brilliant about this work, is that they found a way to visually bring Bacon's paintings to life - they are exploring the man, the life, the love through the filter of his own paintings. Audacious attempt. Expertly Accomplished. One of the few films about painting that honestly pays true homage to the art form. This is not a suburban film about a painter - and who he was and what happened to him and what he did - rather... This Is A Painter's Film. There are graceful, indelible moments here that have scraped a little unused previously untouched part of my brain I did not know was there and scarred and these irrelevant vivid images, these haunting shots that only exist to soar and be seen without a net of linear context have affixed themselves into my memory to reappear at whim and always make me gasp. and clamor to savor, they slip away again. and the world, oh yea, here. That last amazing scene I'm trying so hard not to copy in my own creations, but - that - last - amazing - scene - seems - stronger - than - my - own - will -