Interviews and Films about Francis Bacon
The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation produces or helps fund documentaries and interviews about Francis Bacon and takes part in non-fiction film or television productions focusing on the artist.
Foundation interviews
These interviews with artists, photographers and friends of Francis Bacon, conducted by Garry Scott-Irvine and Alain Amiel and filmed in the privacy of the interviewees’ homes or studios, offer unique insights into the painter’s life and work. They are directed and produced by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation.
Films produced or supported by the Foundation
Bacon: The Van Gogh Sequence
Produced by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation in 2020
Directed by Alain Amiel
In 1956‒1957, a watershed period in his life, Francis Bacon produced a series of paintings inspired by Van Gogh’s The Painter on the Road to Tarascon (1888). This series, which was first shown at the Hanover Gallery in London in March 1957, marks a turning point in his work and a radical change in his palette. Bright colours erupt on the canvas. The use of short, thick brushstrokes represents a complete break with his previous works.
Francis Bacon/Ernest Pignon-Ernest: Exchanges
Produced by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation in 2020
Directed by Alain Amiel
On 27 September 1987, when the Libération art critic Henri-François Debailleux asked Francis Bacon if he was interested in contemporary art, the painter responded: “A few years ago I saw some photos of drawings on walls by a French artist, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, which I found very interesting.”
In this documentary, Pignon-Ernest discusses his passion for Bacon’s work and talks about the themes they have in common.
In interviews, Henri-François Debailleux, Jean Frémon, the director of the Galerie Lelong, which has exhibited both artists, and the writers Yves Peyré and Frank Maubert, who were friends with Bacon, discuss the resonances they perceive between the two artists.
Connexions: Bacon-Vélasquez
Produced by France Télévisions in 2020
Directed by Annie Dautane and Eve Ramboz
This documentary received funding from the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation. It was first broadcast on the French television channel France 5 on 27 November 2021.
Diego Velázquez’ Portrait of Pope Innocent X, painted in about 1650, was one of Francis Bacon’s greatest obsessions. It haunted him for over 20 years and he produced more than 50 variations on it. The documentary explores the parallels between the two painters.
Non-fiction film or television productions featuring the Foundation
Invitation au voyage : à Monaco, Francis Bacon sort le grand jeu
Produced by Arte France in 2021
Directed by Anne Fonteneau
The Foundation featured in a short film entitled ‘À Monaco, Francis Bacon sort le grand jeu’ (‘Francis Bacon stakes his all in Monaco’) directed by Anne Fonteneau for the magazine programme Invitation au Voyage and broadcast on the Franco-German television channel ARTE on 9 June 2021. It highlights Monaco’s importance in the life and work of the British painter, who regularly stayed there over a period of almost 50 years and includes three instructive interviews – one with Cécilia Auber, the Foundation tour guide, another with Claude Valion, who acts as consultant to the Foundation, and the third with the art critic Alain Amiel.
Francis Bacon: The Outsider
Produced by Mount Venus Productions, 2022
Directed by Karen McGrath
The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation took part in a film produced by Mount Venus Productions and broadcast on the Irish channel RTÉ One, retracing Francis Bacon’s links with Ireland and exploring the country’s influence on his early career. The Foundation acted as host to the television crew for a day’s filming in Monaco. The high points of the documentary are when we first see Francis Bacon’s first oil-painting, ‘Painting’ (circa 1930), which is now in the MB Art Collection, and the reveal of the place in Ireland where Bacon began working on it. Presented and narrated by the rock group U2’s Adam Clayton, a huge admirer of Francis Bacon, the documentary recounts the artist’s time in Ireland and examines his complex relationship with the country where he was born.