The path to success of Farukh Bulsara began with the fact that in 1970 he officially changed his name to Freddie Mercury. After this, a series of events occurred that made the rock and roll icon out of a poor Parsian emigrant.
On November 1, 2018, the premiere of the film “Bohemian Rhapsody” took place, which immediately overtook all competitors at the box office in America, Russia and the CIS countries.
The stunning life story of a cult artist and his bandmates came to life on the screens. Who got the role of the charismatic Queen leader and did the expectations of the audience come true?
Preparing for filming
Back in the fall of 2010, Queen guitarist Brian May announced in one of the Air Force shows that preparations had begun for filming a biopic.
It was assumed that the role of Mercury will be taken over by Sasha Baron Cohen, who has an incredible resemblance to the singer, but after a while he left the project. The official version said that the actor had disagreements with members of the legendary group in charge of the process of creating the film.
The pretender for the lead role wanted the most truthful movie about the fate of a celebrity to be shot, but Brian May and Roger Taylor were counting on a lighter version that could be watched by the whole family.
In 2013, Dexter Fletcher received the director’s chair, and Ben Whishaw entrusted the lead party. A few months later, the director abandoned his post. After him, Wishaw also left, dissatisfied with the slow preparation for filming.
Only in 2016, things got off the ground: the director's functions went to Brian Singer, and the role of a talented performer was given to Rami Malek, who had not played high-profile roles in feature films before. The producers drew attention to the actor after the release of the series "Mr. Robot", for which he received the prestigious Emmy Award.
Filming
In September 2017, the filming process of the film started in London, and it soon became clear that difficulties could not be avoided.
Scandals often broke out at the site, the instigator of which was Singer, and only three months later he was completely removed from office due to "unprofessional behavior" and periodic absence from filming.
However, the work was not suspended: Dexter Fletcher returned to the project.
The first step was to recreate the famous 1985 concert Live Aid, which was once broadcast in more than 150 countries. About 80,000 people attended Wembley Stadium that far day.
The film crew built a copy of the scene at RAF Bovingdon British airfield. When the producer of Live Aid arrived, he was amazed at the exact reproduction of the reconstruction.
As Malek later admitted, work on the image completely depleted him, and he first fell asleep without removing makeup. He did not set himself the goal of imitating a star of the 80s, but simply wanted to understand what was pushing Mercury to do certain things. Trying to adopt the manner of his behavior, Rami spent tens of hours, and in the end he still managed to get closer to the legend.
The long-awaited premiere
Having gone on world hire, “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the very first weekend took leadership in it, collecting more than $ 270 million at the start.
An intriguing story came to life on the screens about how Freddie and his fellow musicians created one of the most successful bands in the world.
The audience saw how popular hits were invented, which later appeared at the top of the charts, and how the expressive soloist managed to get the recognition of millions of listeners.
Also, the screenwriter did not ignore the special connection of the celebrity with deeply religious parents, his warm feelings for cats, affection for Mary's girlfriend and love experiences that happened to him.
It is noteworthy that the musical drama was appreciated not only by fans of the world-famous rock band, but also by spectators who first got acquainted with her work. After leaving the cinema halls, many people search the Web for an original recording of Queen's performance on Live Aid, because it is around this concert that the entire film was built.
Having seen the footage of 1985, one cannot help but be amazed at how painstakingly and accurately the authors of the biopic recreated the events.
Also, Malek's amazing acting game, which many authoritative critics noted, cannot but surprise.
Some fans scolded the film for the lack of plot depth: supposedly the most dramatic and dark times in the life of the Queen soloist were not shown in detail.
Nevertheless, the success of the film speaks for itself.
The Triumph of Rami Malek
An amazing game, absolute dedication, a convincing fit into the image - this is how the leading world publications on cinema described the work of Rami Malek.
Watching his efforts, it is impossible not to marvel at the transformation achieved. As you know, in ordinary life, this young American artist of Egyptian descent is very shy and reserved, so seeing such a result is doubly surprising.
However, this fact brings him even closer to the main character of the film: Freddie’s close people claimed that in communicating with them he was not at all as eccentric as on stage. And the singer himself said that he happens to be an extrovert only during performances.
After the release of Bohemian Rhapsody, Malek’s popularity rapidly increased. Until recently, only fans of “Mr. Robot” and “Nights at the Museum” (he played the mummy there) knew about him, and now the whole world is talking about him.
According to the recognition of the actor himself, he perfectly understood that if he could not cope with the image, then this could put an end to his career.
“But it was an opportunity that cannot be simply abandoned ... This is a real gift,” Malek sums up.
Secrets of "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Most of the compositions sounded in the film are the original recording with the singing of Mercury, but some fragments of the songs are an amalgam from the voices of imitating singer Mark Martell and Malek himself.
The performance at Wembley Stadium was demonstrated in the film in almost the same form as it did in 1985 - from the glasses with Pepsi to the piano and ending with air kisses, which the legendary Queen leader sent to the public.
