Bohemian Rhapsody has triumphed at the global box office and is starting to pick up major award season buzz, with early nominations at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild already announced. As the movie powers past half a billion dollars worldwide, criticisms persist that it is not accurate, that it avoids any uncomfortable truths about Freddie’s life and death, and that it hammers home how much his bandmates “resented” him. What is true? The band themselves have spoken out.
In an early critique, Mike Ryan from Uproxx said: “My biggest takeaway from BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY is how much the rest of Queen resents Freddie Mercury…
“Also this is the first biopic I ever remember watching in which literally every scene I’m thinking, ‘there’s no way that’s how that actually went down.’ The whole third act is not even close to accurate. That’s all I’ll say.”
Brian May has already acknowledged that some of the timelines were altered, notably the sequences around Freddie revealing his HIV diagnosis and the Live Aid concert.
He told Classic Rock: “Queen fans will understand when they see it that certain things have been moved around for the story to make sense. You can’t collapse forty years of a person’s life into two and a half hours without cutting out a lot of stuff.”
But what about accusations that the film was being used as a way for the band to air their grievances with Freddie’s behaviour.
May has referred to the “gut-wrenching” scene where Freddie tells the band he is leaving to pursue a solo career, but many critics point out that all the members had been starting to investigate solo projects at that time.
What is clear from interviews given by May and Taylor (Roger Deacon has had little official involvement with the band since his retirement in January 1997), is how much they hope the film shows every side of Freddie and reflects all his talents and depths.
Asked if Freddie would agree with how he is portrayed, May said: “I think he would have felt it was a fair cop, really. It shows all his greatness and all his fallibility and insecurity – the whole bit. I think it shows him very truthfully and not sycophantically, but in a way that appreciates his talent. Because he was sure was unique. I’ve never met anybody like Freddie in my life, before or since, and it’s probably not going to happen again.”
]]>https://briefnews.eu/bohemian-rhapsody-queen-bandmates-resented-freddie-mercury-brian-may-says-this/feed/0'Queen Elizabeth won’t even be AWARE of Meghan Markle’s Instagram' claims Jennie Bond
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Queen Elizabeth is unlikely to be aware of Meghan Markle’s social life, reckons Jennie Bond
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk about the Royal Family’s use of social media, Jennie, ex-BBC Royal Correspondent, said: “I very much doubt the Queen is aware of what is going on in Meghan Markle’s social life.
“She keeps herself away from the private lives of her children and indeed, grandchildren. Just look at how long it was before she intervened with Charles and Diana, only really when the marriage was in trouble.”
Despite the Queen herself having a prolific social media profile – her Majesty has a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube channel – the monarch has only tweeted twice herself to her 2.8million followers on the @royalfamily account.
Yet recent job advertisements from both Buckingham Palace and Clarence House have called for further digital communications experts to join the team behind running the various accounts.
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Both the Queen and the Duke are very elderly, death is going to occur and I have no doubt that the first place I will see a rumour will be on my Twitter account or on Facebook
Jennie Bond
Because of this expansion Jennie is positive that social media will be one of the first places where we will hear Royal news, including the death of a member of the Royal Family.
She says, “Both the Queen and the Duke are very elderly, death is going to occur and I have no doubt that the first place I will see a rumour will be on my Twitter account or on Facebook.
“Social media is a different ball game and the communications team at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House are very aware that any kind of news is more or less impossible to keep under wraps.
“I remember when the Queen Mother was ill, she was smuggled in the back entrance of the hospital and I didn’t know anything about it until I got a telephone call in the middle of the night. Whereas for the birth of Princess Charlotte, news was coming direct to a Royal Correspondent’s mobile phone, so they could break the news more quickly than they have done in the past.”
Mon, February 27, 2017
Queen Elizabeth II making her Royal visits in her many colourful and elegant outfits.
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Queen Elizabeth II greets Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha and his wife, at a reception to mark the launch of the UK-India Year of Culture 2017 at Buckingham Palace, London
It seems that since the death of Princess Diana, the Royal Family have taken steps to ensure that they have become more transparent with their audience.
With the Queen herself declaring that lessons must be learnt from both Diana’s life and death, Jennie thinks that a wide social media presence is a step towards this.
She noted: “The Queen has always believed in evolution rather than revolution and since Diana’s death the Royal Family has made a conscious effort to become more modern, transparent and accountable.
“But social media is a strategy for them. There is no point having an invisible monarchy when it comes to their charity and ambassador roles, they need to maximise the publicity it brings and the best way to do this is through social media.”
Instagram/Meghan Markle
Meghan Markle is an avid social media user, often sharing candid selfies and snaps of her life
It seems as though Prince Charles was somewhat of a pioneer of social media for the Royal Family, setting up his @ClarenceHouse Twitter account in 2010.
His 608k followers were boosted recently when he appeared to photobomb popular rock band Kasabian as they tucked in to lunch at the Prince of Wales pub in Somerset, gaining the Duke an unlikely, younger fan base as a result.
Jennie thinks that this transparent approach is the right way to publicise the good that the Royal Family do, but there will be an orchestrated element behind these candid snaps.
She said: “Of course the young Royals are best at this but I have no doubt that ‘fun’ elements such as Prince Harry’s mic drop to President Barack Obama when advertising the Invictus Games is part of a very controlled, albeit successful, campaign.”
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The Queen keeps away from the private lives of her grandchildren, Jennie Bond revealed
It is not just the Royal Family who are using social media to make big announcements – Co-op Funeralcare has today revealed in its new report ‘A life well streamed’, that more than one in ten of UK adults are posting notices on the deaths of their loved ones online.
The study found a 13 per cent of UK adults have personally posted online to notify others about the death of a loved one.
Reacting to the research, Jennie said: “I welcome this report today and I am totally in favour of it as long as sensitive guidelines are used, such as telling the nearest and dearest first. This should serve as an important message that we should try and break down the taboo of talking about death.
“It should be a conversation we have before we die so that loved ones do not have to guess how you want to depart in this life. We really should stop being so embarrassed and consider all options when it comes to talking about the only absolute certainty in life.”