The Lost Language of Cranes (1991)

Young gay Philip Benjamin (Angus Macfadyen) comes out of the closet because he is madly in love with American graphic artist Elliott (Corey Parker). His friends support him, but when he comes out to his parents, he stirs up hidden feelings and secrets in their relationship. His book editor mother Rose (Eileen Atkins) believes that "keeping certain secrets secret is essential to the general balance of life," but Philip's honesty precipitates a crisis that threatens to tear the family apart. This is because Philip's academic father Owen (Brian Cox) leads a secret life, hiding his own homosexuality from Rose while spending his Sundays in porn cinemas. Owen has been crippled emotionally by years of deceit, and he is incapable of having an honest relationship with his wife, his son, or any of the men whom he meets. When he learns that Philip is gay an emotional dam breaks, years of self-loathing pour out, and he decides to tell the truth. Philip and Owen find freedom when they come out, but in many ways Rose's dilemma is the key to this film. Philip's revelation helps her to understand that she has known all along about her husband's homosexuality, and that keeping secrets is far more damaging than revealing them. Yet she is left feeling "like the punch line of some terrible joke" even as her husband and son are set free.

"The Lost Language of Cranes" is a compelling examination of the consequences of honesty, both good and bad. Acting is top-notch in this BBC made for TV movie. The film was censored in the US for both its PBS airing and its VHS release. PBS was coming under fire by conservative groups in the early 1990's for presenting programming showing homosexuality and nudity. Original music was composed by Julian Wastall. Sean Mathias wrote the screenplay from David Leavitt's acclaimed novel. The book is set in NYC with American characters, but the film takes place in London with most of the characters British. Nigel Finch directed.

Love Is the Devil (1998)

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.