Bohemian Rapsody

Directed by Bryan Singer 

A film with: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello, Aidan Gillen. Original title: Bohemian Rhapsody. Genre Biography, Drama, Music - Great Britain, USA, 2018, run time 134 minutes. 

Bohemian Rhapsody is a 2018 biographical drama film about Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the British rock band Queen.

In 1970 London, Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara, an Indian Parsi refugee from Zanzibar, works as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport and lives with his parents and sister. After seeing the band Smile perform at a pub, Freddie encounters Mary Austin, and meets the drummer, Roger Taylor, and guitarist, Brian May. Learning their lead singer, Tim Staffell, has quit, Freddie offers to join and demonstrates his vocal ability. Freddie and Mary begin dating.

With Freddie as lead singer and bassist John Deacon, the band sells out gigs across Britain. Freddie urges them to think bigger, selling their van to book Trident Studios^[12] to record their debut album. An A&R rep from EMI Records, watching the band experiment, asks sound engineer Roy Thomas Bakerfor their demos. Freddie changes the band's name to Queen, and legally changes his own name to Freddie Mercury.

The band signs with John Reid, Elton John's manager, and receives a contract with EMI. An appearance on Top of the Pops gives Queen a hit record, "Killer Queen". After touring to promote the album, Mary and Freddie become engaged. The album hits the charts in America and the band embarks on a sold-out U.S. tour, where Freddie questions his sexuality.

In 1975, Queen records their fourth album, A Night at the Opera, but leaves EMI when executive Ray Foster refuses to release the operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody" as the album's lead single due to its six-minute length; Foster also derides the single for its lyrics and melody, to which Freddie retaliates by throwing a rock through Foster's window and cursing at him (to which Foster responds in kind), as the band has placed extensive effort in writing and performing it. Freddie has DJ Kenny Everett debut the song on the radio; despite mixed reviews, it becomes a smash hit. On Queen's world tour, Freddie begins an affair with Paul Prenter, the band's day-to-day manager after an encounter between the two while Freddie rehearses "Love of My Life". Confronted by Mary, Freddie comes out to her as bisexual, although she assures him he is gay. They end their engagement, but they continue to remain as friends and she moves next door when he purchases an extravagant house in 1980.

Tensions arise in the band as Freddie sinks into debauchery with the manipulative Paul. After throwing a lavish party, Freddie gropes Jim Hutton, a waiter. Jim reacts angrily but Freddie apologises and the two chat and share a kiss. Jim tells Freddie to find Jim when he learns to like himself. Meanwhile, Brian May writes "We Will Rock You" as a song the audience can play along to, and following a successful show performing it, Paul enlists Reid to propose that Freddie pursue a solo career and disband Queen, prompting Freddie to fire Reid out of drunken anger without consulting the band, furthering their strain. Also, Freddie's desire for Queen to branch out into other genres of music, like disco and club music, creates an additional conflict with the band, although John Deacon, who is the most open-minded to the idea, writes an upbeat bass riff that ultimately leads to Queen's next hit "Another One Bites the Dust". At a press conference promoting Queen's 1982 album Hot Space, Freddie is bombarded with questions about his personal life, infuriating him.

Freddie's relationship with his bandmates further sours after their music video for "I Want to Break Free", in which the band appears in drag, is banned from MTV. He announces his $4 million solo deal with CBS Records, effectively breaking up the band. In 1984, Freddie moves to Munich to work on his first solo album, Mr. Bad Guy, finding himself lost in drugs, alcohol, and orgies with Paul, and becomes increasingly ill. Mary, now pregnant by her new partner and concerned about Freddie, urges him to return to the band, as they have been offered a spot in Bob Geldof's benefit concert, Live Aid at Wembley Stadium.

Discovering that Paul withheld this news from him, Freddie severs ties with him, having finally had enough of Paul's lies and behaviour, but Paul retaliates by going public about Freddie's sexual escapades. Freddie returns to London and reconciles with his bandmates after they agree that their songs will now be credited by Queen as a whole, while their new manager Jim Beach asks them for their answer about participating in Live Aid. They agree and are given a last-minute slot. With HIV/AIDS spreading worldwide, Freddie discovers that he has contracted the virus; he reveals this to his supportive bandmates. The members are shocked to hear this, but Freddie tells them that pitying him is only a waste of time.

On the day of Live Aid, Freddie reconnects with Jim, Mary, and his family. The film moves to a quarter hour of the band onstage, performing "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Radio Ga Ga", "Hammer to Fall", and "We Are the Champions", helping increase donations and turning the event into a massive success. The film ends with inter-titles, stating that Freddie died on 24 November 1991 at 45 from AIDS-related pneumonia, remaining close with Jim and Mary for the rest of his life, and that the Mercury Phoenix Trust was founded in his honour to help those living with AIDS.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Rhapsody_(film)