Francis Bacon (1985)
Although it appears a bit dated today, this 55-minute BBC documentary directed by David Hinton and won an International Emmy Award in 1985. A repeat award winner, Hinton has directed numerous documentaries about art and artists of all kinds, including several dance films.
Francis Bacon, a 20th century British painter of Irish decent, was famous for his paintings of distorted and isolated figures that often bordered on the grotesque and sublime. While most see Bacon’s images as horrific, the artist describes them rather as “images of realism” depicting simply, what exists. “It is the violence of life,” he says. Greatly inspired by Eadweard Muybridge, Bacon’s paintings were his own personal translations of photographs, people he knew intimately, and other images from real life.
The documentary follows interviewer Melvyin Bragg as he probes into Bacon’s vision of “deeply ordered chaos.” The two men view and discuss a slideshow of Bacon’s work at the Tate gallery in London, drink wine while discussing realism and sensation at a café, assess Bacon’s chaotic studio space in Kensington, and make an appearance at one of the artist’s favorite haunts, a bar known as the Colony Room.
Hinston’s production captures Bacon’s elusiveness in front of the camera, skillfully juxtaposing this to the much more direct and immediate impact of his visual work, however, it is otherwise technically uninspiring.
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Grading
- Story NA
- Acting NA
- Visuals C
- Originality/Innovation B-
- Enjoyability B
- Overall B-
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