Movies Like Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998)

Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon is a 1998 drama film from John Maybury with a MovieMagicScore of 6.0/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with Little Richard: I Am Everything and Variações: Guardian Angel.

Drama

Little Richard: I Am Everything

2023

The story of the black, gay origins of rock n' roll. It explodes the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard's complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon's life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions.

6.4

MagicScore

Variações: Guardian Angel

2019

Film biography dwelling on the hectic artistic life of António Variações, a famous Portuguese pop rock singer from the 80s, who died from AIDS-related complications in 1984.

6.9

MagicScore

Tom of Finland

2017

Touko Laaksonen, a decorated officer, returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II, but life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds peace-time Helsinki rampant with persecution of the homosexual and men around him even being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specialising in homoerotic drawings of muscular men, free of inhibitions. His work – made famous by his signature ‘Tom of Finland’ – became the emblem of a generation of men and fanned the flames of a gay revolution.

6.6

MagicScore

Love and Other Disasters

2006

Flighty Emily "Jacks" Jackson works for the British edition of Vogue magazine. Rather than pursue a relationship, Jacks regularly hooks up with her devoted ex-boyfriend, James Wildstone, and lives with Peter Simon, a gay screenwriter. When Jacks meets Argentinian photographer's assistant Paolo Sarmiento, she assumes he is gay and tries to bring him and Peter together, unaware that Paolo is straight and in love with her.

5.7

MagicScore

Painted Fire

2002

In a time of political and social unrest in 19th century Korea, uncouth, self-taught painter Jang Seung-up explores his natural talent amidst the repressive world around him.

7.0

MagicScore

Caravaggio

1986

A retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld.

6.1

MagicScore

Pain and Glory

2019

Salvador Mallo, a filmmaker in the twilight of his career, remembers his life: his mother, his lovers, the actors he worked with. The sixties in a small village in Valencia, the eighties in Madrid, the present, when he feels an immeasurable emptiness, facing his mortality, the incapability of continuing filming, the impossibility of separating creation from his own life. The need of narrating his past can be his salvation.

7.4

MagicScore

The Trials of Oscar Wilde

1960

England, 1890s. The brutal and embittered Marquis of Queensberry, who believes that his youngest son, Bosie, has an inappropriate relationship with the famous Irish writer Oscar Wilde, maintains an ongoing feud with the latter in order to ruin his reputation and cause his fall from grace.

6.3

MagicScore

Mapplethorpe

2019

A look at the life of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe from his rise to fame in the 1970s to his untimely death in 1989.

6.3

MagicScore

#10

Caravaggio's Shadow

2022

The Catholic Church secretly investigates Caravaggio as the Pope weighs whether to grant him clemency for killing a rival.

6.4

MagicScore

#11

Those People

2015

On Manhattan's gilded Upper East Side, a young gay painter is torn between an obsession with his infamous best friend and a promising new romance with an older foreign pianist.

6.9

MagicScore

#12

Frida

2002

A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.

7.4

MagicScore

#13

Everything Is Free

2017

Ivan is a US painter residing in Colombia. His best friend, Christian, and younger brother, Cole, come to visit. Somewhere along the way, Ivan and Cole hit it off although Cole is not gay. Will older brother Christian be okay with that?

5.5

MagicScore

#14

Just a Question of Love

2000

After his gay cousin dies from hepatitis, young Laurent, who lives with his best friend Carole, falls in love with Cedric, a plant scientist. He's afraid to inform his conservative parents that he is gay.

7.2

MagicScore

#15

Cockles and Muscles

2005

Crustacés et coquillages is a fresh French comedy film with numerous surprise turnarounds and about the tolerance of a family of four. The family spend an idealistic summer vacation together where each of the family members gets involved in a new or old relationship.

5.8

MagicScore

#16

Manila in the Claws of Light

1975

Julio, a young fisherman from a provincial village, descends into social alienation as he arrives in Manila to search for his loved one.

7.2

MagicScore

#17

Lilting

2014

A young man of Chinese-Cambodian descent dies, leaving behind his isolated mother and his lover of four years. Though the two don't share a language, they grow close through their grief.

6.9

MagicScore

#18

The Mudge Boy

2003

Chronicling the troubled existence of Duncan Mudge, a 14-year-old misfit who—while vying for the attention of his vacant father—struggles to fill the void brought on by his mother's sudden death.

6.6

MagicScore

#19

Two Drifters

2005

After breaking up with her boyfriend, a woman named Odete descends into madness and claims to be pregnant with the child of her neighbour Pedro, who died in a car crash and is mourned by his boyfriend Rui.

6.2

MagicScore

#20

You, Me and Him

2007

When the plans for the future change, new bonds are created between Danilo, Lucas and Marcos. in between video-games and milk cups, pain and disappointment, they need to learn how to live together.

6.0

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon?

The top films similar to Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon by MovieMagicScore are Little Richard: I Am Everything (6.4), Variações: Guardian Angel (6.9), Tom of Finland (6.6). Each shares drama themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon worth watching?

Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.0/10 from 67 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon?

Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998) is a drama film directed by John Maybury, starring Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig, Tilda Swinton.

Where can I find more recommendations like Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more drama recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like Little Richard: I Am Everything Movies like Variações: Guardian Angel Movies like Tom of Finland Movies like Love and Other Disasters Movies like Painted Fire Movies like Caravaggio

About movies like Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon

This ranked list pairs Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), a drama film from John Maybury, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Derek Jacobi take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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