In the 1960s, British artist Francis Bacon (Derek Jacobi) surprises a burglar and makes a proposition: if the robber comes to bed with him, he can have anything he wants. The burglar, a working class man named George Dyer (Daniel Craig), 30 years Bacon's junior, accepts. The next thing you know, they're a couple. In their sex life, Dyer dominates and Bacon is the masochist. Bacon craves being totally dominated by other men, but outside the bedroom Bacon is in complete control of his lover, who falls to pieces. Bacon refers to Dyer as his ''odd job man", and locks him out of the house when he's entertaining other sexual partners. When Dyer tells Bacon he loves him, the artist wonders out loud what bad television show those lines came from. Bacon finds Dyer's amorality and innocence attractive, and introduces him to his Soho friends. Dyer's bouts with depression, his drinking, pill popping, and his nightmares strain the relationship, as does his pain with Bacon's casual infidelities. Bacon paints, talks with wit, and as Dyer spins out of control, begins to find him tiresome. The arrogant Bacon says, ''Champagne for my real friends. Real pain for my sham friends." When a young painter who idolizes Bacon begs him to come see his work, Bacon replies that the young man's taste in neckties is proof he couldn't possibly have any talent.
This movie about painter Francis Bacon (1909-1992) at the height of his fame in the 1960s, is one of the nastiest and most truthful portraits of the artist as monster ever filmed. The story of a self-absorbed painter and his self-destructive younger lover makes a fascinating cult film. Using twisted dialogue with creative and strange camera angles, it captures the distorted viewpoint of Bacon and how he perceived his grim surroundings. Made for TV by the BBC, it doesn't show any of Bacon's work, although the look of the entire movie resembles a Bacon painting. Ryuichi Sakamoto composed the original music. It was written and directed by John Maybury. The film draws heavily on the authorised biography of Bacon, "The Guilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon" by Daniel Farson, and is dedicated to him.
