Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender | |
---|---|
Genre | Documentary |
Directed by | Rhys Thomas |
Starring | Freddie Mercury (archival footage) |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producers | Rhys Thomas Jim Beach Joss Crowley |
Cinematography | Ric Clark |
Editor | Christopher Bird |
Running time |
|
Production companies | Eagle Rock; Mercury Songs Ltd |
Original release | |
Network | BBC One |
Release | 16 October 2012 |
Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender is an Emmy/Rose d'Or award-winning 2012 feature-length documentary film about Queen singer Freddie Mercury and his attempt to forge a solo career. The film is a British venture co-produced by EMP and Mercury Songs for Eagle Rock Entertainment with Eagle Rock serving as distributor. [1]
Directed by Rhys Thomas and produced by Jim (Miami) Beach, Rhys Thomas and Joss Crowley. The documentary premiered on BBC One in edited form as part of the Imagine series, and later the Director's Cut was shown on BBC Four. It gained 3.5 million viewers when aired on BBC One in October 2012 and a further 1.2 million when shown on BBC Four.
Produced and directed by Rhys Thomas, a lifelong Queen fan and expert. Thomas focused on archive material of Mercury, going back to 1976 in search of footage to show the story of Mercury's life, career and the solo projects including the Mr. Bad Guy album, he had worked on outside of Queen. [2] The producer, editor and director of photography behind the 2011 BBC documentary Queen: Days of Our Lives.
The film was exclusively broadcast on the British television channel BBC One on 16 October 2012 at 10:35pm in England and Scotland and 11:05pm in Wales and Northern Ireland with an edited version of 65 minutes. [3] [4] The documentary coincided with the release of the new Barcelona Special Edition album with Mercury and Caballé's original album re-recorded with a full 80-piece orchestra (a feature on the making of this album is included on both formats) and a new book, also entitled The Great Pretender, with matching artwork.
On 6 September 2012 the official trailer was released on YouTube by Eagle Rock Entertainment. [5]
The Great Pretender was released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download through Eagle Vision Media on 24 September 2012. [6] It was released in the United States on 25 September from Eagle Rock Entertainment. [7] The length of the film on home media is approximately 1 hour 47 minutes. [8] All formats include the extended version that was not aired on BBC One. The bonus features added on DVD and Blu-ray are "Freddie Mercury Goes Solo" a seven-minute interview, an extended seven-minute interview with Montserrat Caballé and a five-minute documentary the Making Barcelona: Special Edition 2012. [9]
The film debuted at #3 on the Official UK Music Video Chart on 30 September 2012, based on sales of DVDs and other physical formats. [10]
After the original BBC One broadcast in October, an extended director's cut aired on BBC Four on 29 and 30 December 2012 and then on BBC Four HD at 11:00pm on 5 January 2013. The director's cut features 25 minutes of extra footage. [11] It was also aired in Australia on ABC2 in December 2012 with it being aired again in 2018 on SBS due to the release of the biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody . [12] [13] The documentary was broadcast on British television channel Pick on 20 April 2019 to coincide with the 27th anniversary of The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. [14]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2019) |
Sarah Rainey for The Telegraph wrote "with so much of Mercury's career already explored, and legions of Queen fans attending sell-out We Will Rock You performances in the West End (now in its 10th year), it is difficult to tread new ground. But Yentob's affectionate tribute captured Mercury in a new light.", giving it a rating of 3/5 stars. [15] Guardian critic Caroline Sullivan said "In the BBC programme – its title taken from a 1987 solo single – Mercury emerges as anything but boring. Skittish, exasperating and endearing, yes, but never dull. [16]
Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) and nominee(s) | Result | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
British Academy Film Awards | 10 February 2013 | Breakthrough Talent | Rhys Thomas (Director) | Nominated | [17] |
Rose d'Or | 30 May 2013 | Arts | Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender | Won | [18] [19] |
International Emmy Award | 25 November 2013 | Arts Programming | Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender | Won | [20] |
Charts (2012) | Peak position | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|
Australian Top 40 DVDs Chart (ARIA) | 6 | [21] |
Austrian Music DVDs (Ö3 Austria) | 5 | [22] |
Belgian (Flanders) Music DVDs (Ultratop) | 3 | [23] |
Belgian (Wallonia) Music DVDs (Ultratop) | 1 | [24] |
Dutch Music DVD Chart (MegaCharts) | 3 | [25] |
Swiss Music DVD Chart (Hitparade) | 7 | [26] |
UK Official Music Video (OCC) | 3 | [27] |
US Music Video Sales ( Billboard ) | 4 | [28] |
Freddie Mercury was a British singer and songwriter who achieved worldwide fame as the lead vocalist and pianist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of rock music, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and four-octave vocal range. Mercury defied the conventions of a rock frontman with his theatrical style, influencing the artistic direction of Queen.
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a song by the British rock band Queen. Written by Freddie Mercury in 1979, the track is included on their 1980 album The Game, and also appears on the band's compilation album Greatest Hits in 1981. The song peaked at number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, becoming the group's first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US in 1980, remaining there for four consecutive weeks. It topped the Australian ARIA Charts for seven weeks. It was the band's final single release of the 1970s.
Mr. Bad Guy is the first solo studio album by British musician Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen. Released in 1985, during a period in which Queen were on hiatus from recording, it contains eleven songs, all written by Mercury himself.
Barcelona is a collaborative studio album recorded by Freddie Mercury, lead singer of popular British rock band Queen, and operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé. It was released in 1988 and serves as the second and final album by Mercury to be recorded outside of Queen.
"The Great Pretender" is a popular song recorded by The Platters, with Tony Williams on lead vocals, and released as a single in November 1955. The words and music were written by Buck Ram, the Platters' manager and producer who was a successful songwriter before moving into producing and management. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard's Top 100, and No. 5 on the UK charts.
"Who Wants to Live Forever" is a song by the British rock band Queen. A power ballad, it is the sixth track on the album A Kind of Magic, which was released in June 1986, and was written by lead guitarist Brian May for the soundtrack to the film Highlander. Queen was backed up by an orchestra, with orchestrations by film score composer Michael Kamen. The song peaked at No. 24 in the UK charts. In 1991, it was included in the band's second compilation album Greatest Hits II.
"I Want It All" is a song by British rock band Queen, featured on their 1989 studio album, The Miracle. Written by guitarist and vocalist Brian May and produced by David Richards, it was released as the first single from the album on 2 May 1989. "I Want It All" reached number three on the singles charts of the United Kingdom, Finland, Ireland and New Zealand, as well as on the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. Elsewhere, it peaked at number two in the Netherlands and charted within the top 10 in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Norway and Switzerland. With its message about fighting for one's own goals it became an anti-apartheid protest song in South Africa.
Rhys Thomas is a British director, producer, actor, comedian and writer.
We Will Rock You is a concert film by English band Queen. It was filmed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the Montreal Forum on 24 and 25 November 1981.
Lover of Life, Singer of Songs is a compilation album of Freddie Mercury's solo songs. It was released on 4 September 2006, the day before Mercury's 60th Birthday. It was released on 21 November 2006 in the U.S, three days before the 15th anniversary of Mercury's death.
The Solo Collection is a compilation box set detailing the solo career of Freddie Mercury; it includes the material Mercury recorded before joining up with Queen, up through the 1993 No More Brothers remixes. Mercury's two studio albums are included, along with various single edits and non-album singles, B-sides, remixes, instrumentals, collaborations, a large number of demo recordings and a set of interviews conducted by David Wigg. Also included are two DVDs: a collection of Mercury's promotional music videos, and a documentary covering his life.
As well as his work with Queen, Freddie Mercury released two solo albums and several singles. Although his solo work was not as commercially successful as most Queen albums, the two off-Queen albums and several of the singles debuted in the top 10 of the UK Music Charts. Following Mercury's death in 1991, several posthumous box sets and compilation albums have been released.
Queen Rock Montreal is a live album by the British rock band Queen. It was released on 29 October 2007 as a double CD, Blu-ray, DVD, and triple vinyl in the UK and the following day in the US.
"Barcelona" is a single released by Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury and operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé. A part of their collaborative album Barcelona, it also appeared on Queen's Greatest Hits III.
"Love Kills" is a song by Freddie Mercury, and his first song released as a solo artist, though the other members of Queen appeared on the song - initially uncredited.
Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest is a concert film of the British rock band Queen's performance at the Népstadion in Budapest on 27 July 1986. It was part of the band's final tour with original lead singer Freddie Mercury, The Magic Tour. Queen were one of the few bands from Western Europe to perform in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. The film had a limited theatrical release in Eastern Bloc countries in 1987/1988 and worldwide on 20 September 2012. The concert was released on VHS and Laserdisc in the UK and Japan on 16 February 1987 under the original title Queen Live In Budapest, and on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time on 5 November 2012 worldwide, except in the United States where it was released a day later. The concert title is a play on the Hungarian Rhapsodies by Franz Liszt and one of Queen's most celebrated hits, "Bohemian Rhapsody".
"Radio Ga Ga" is a 1984 song performed and recorded by the British rock band Queen, written by their drummer Roger Taylor. It was released as a single with "I Go Crazy" by Brian May as the B-side. It was included on the album The Works and is also featured on the band's compilation albums Greatest Hits II and Classic Queen.
A Night at the Odeon is a live album by the British rock band Queen. The album is the first official release of the band's Christmas Eve performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1975, filmed by the BBC. The show was broadcast on BBC2 and BBC Radio 1, and included one of the first live performances of "Bohemian Rhapsody". It is the band's most popular bootleg.
Bohemian Rhapsody is a 2018 biographical musical drama film that focuses on the life of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the British rock band Queen, from the formation of the band in 1970 to their 1985 Live Aid performance at the original Wembley Stadium. It was directed by Bryan Singer from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten, and produced by Graham King and Queen manager Jim Beach. It stars Rami Malek as Mercury, with Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello, Aidan Gillen, Tom Hollander, and Mike Myers in supporting roles. Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor also served as consultants. A British-American venture, it was produced by Regency Enterprises, GK Films and Queen Films, and was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Never Boring is a box set compilation of solo work by English musician Freddie Mercury, released on 11 October 2019. The box set contains three CDs and a collection of promotional videos on both Blu-ray and DVD, as well as a 120-page hardbound book. All three discs were also issued individually on CD, vinyl, digital and streaming services.