AMG Review of Love Is the Devil [Original Soundtrack]

Sean Cooper
All Music Guide

Sakamoto's unnerving soundtrack for John Marbury's portrait of British artist Francis Bacon was at least as important as the film's oft-noted cinematographic dexterity was in capturing the complex psychological landscape of the famous painter. With a palette consisting of little more than chirps, clicks, muted cries and the odd bit of disembodied piano, Sakamoto's score helped give shape to the raw chaos surrounding both Bacon's life and the figures depicted in his paintings. Hardly essential, but no less worthwhile for it.