One Vision!
Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is here. Brian May shares his thoughts, and gets stereoscopic all over again.
“The whole thing affected us emotionally all the time.” BRIAN MAY
“THIS WAS never a documentary,” says Brian May. “It’s more like a painting, or a poem, or a song.” He’s talking about Bohemian Rhapsody, the long-gestating Queen biopic released this month. As well as being a producer, Brian was on set with his Fuji stereoscopic camera in hand, capturing photos for a new edition of his career-straddling book Queen In 3-D. Such documents of the band in its lifetime, plus his and co-producer/Queen drummer Roger Taylor’s input, were crucial to the realisation of the film, which traces Queen’s story from their origins to the extraordinary triumph of Live Aid in 1985. Production started almost nine years ago, with May and Taylor working with scriptwriters Peter Morgan and, later, Anthony McCarten. Sacha Baron Cohen was initially set to play Freddie Mercury, though creative differences over whether the film was to be “adult” or “family-friendly” led to his departure in 2013 and nominal replacement by Ben Whishaw. Balance was achieved in 2016 after Freddie’s role was taken by Rami Malek. “I think the great thing about Rami is that he completely instinctively ‘gets’ the inner Freddie,” says Brian, “the Freddie that was shy and insecure, with a strong need for privacy. The Freddie that the public saw was built on that foundation, and Rami understands the conflicts that this sometimes brought about. He had a lot of material to study, of
course, but he did an amazing thing, he gradually slipped into just being Freddie when we were off-duty together. So, especially during the filming itself, I found myself speaking to him as if he really were Freddie, and I could see Rami perfecting the transformation before my eyes… the whole thing affected us emotionally all the time, of course.” He’s also full of praise for the actors who play the other members of Queen – “they convey a truth beyond what the script alone could convey” – and defends the decision to conclude the film in 1985, six years before Freddie’s death from AIDS in October 1991. “It’s the story we all decided we wanted to tell,” says Brian, who cites Walk The Line and Ray as his favourite music movies. “It’s a device, if you like, to paint the picture of Freddie as a human being and an artist in the most authentic way.” In addition to Live Aid, the film features detailed scenes of many notable Queen events, like the recording of Bohemian Rhapsody and the ’80/81 tour for The Game album. There are parallels in Queen In 3-D, where scenes from the studio, the road and video shoots give an intimate view of life in the most regal rock band of them all. “I never had it in mind that these shots would turn into a book,” says Brian. “I was doing it for fun – for the joy of capturing those scenes in three dimensions. Somehow instinctively I wanted stereoscopy attached to our journey from the start… now, as strongly evocative relics, they have a much greater significance and power.”
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