Who was the inspiration behind Francis Bacon 's series of paintings that began in 1957 ?
During pre-production , Bertolucci frequently visited an exhibit of Bacon 's paintings at the Grand Palais in Paris ; he said that the light and colour in Bacon 's paintings reminded him of Paris in the winter , when " the lights of the stores are on , and there is a very beautiful contrast between the leaden gray of the wintry sky and the warmth of the show windows ... the light in the paintings was the major source of inspiration for the style we were looking for .