Anne Skyvington
  • Writing
    • Craft
      • Structuring a Short Story
      • Alternative Narrative Approaches
      • Genre in Writing
      • A Grain of Folly
        • Novel Writing
          • The Sea Voyage: a metaphor
          • How I Created My Debut Novel
          • What I learnt from writing a novel…
          • Short Story
            • At the Swimming Pool
            • The Night of the Barricades
          • Poetry
            • a funny thing happened …
            • An ancient mystic: Rumi
            • A Window into Poetry
            • The Voice of T.S. Eliot
  • Publishing
    • A Change of Blog Title
    • 5 Further Publishing Facts
    • 5 Facts I Learnt About Self/Publishing
    • Highs and Lows of Self Publishing
    • A Perfect Pitch to a Publisher
    • A Useful Site for Readers and Indie Authors: Books 2 Read
  • Book Reviews
    • A Story of a Special Child
    • Discovering Karrana
    • A Young Adult Novel: My French Barrette
    • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills
    • The Trouble With Flying: A Review
  • Mythos
    • Ancient Stories from Childhood
    • Births Deaths and Marriages
    • Duality or Onenness: The Moon
    • The Myth of Persephone and Demeter
    • Pandora’s Box
    • 7 ancient artefacts in the British Museum
    • Symbolism of Twins
    • The Agony and the Ecstasy of Change
    • Voices From the Past
  • Australia
    • A Country College Residence
    • A Kit Home Goes Up in Vacy
    • A Sydney Icon or Two
    • 5 things about Coogee
    • Moree and Insistent Voices
    • Things To Do in Sydney
  • Travel
    • A Bird’s Eye View
    • A Tuscan Village Holiday
    • Back to Cavtat in Croatia
    • Travel to Croatia
    • 5 or 6 Things About Valencia
  • Guest Post
    • a father’s tale … by Ian (Harry) Wells
    • A Guest Poem: “First Loves” by Roger Britton
    • A Love Sonnet by Ian Harry Wells
    • “Snakey” by Roger Britton
    • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills
    • A Story of a Genteel Ghost told by Roger Britton
  • Psychology
    • Creativity and Mental Illness
    • Networking and Emotional Intelligence
    • C.G.Jung’s Active Imagination and the Dead
    • Psychology as a Field of Study
    • Western Influencers Down Through The Ages
  • Life Stories
    • Adriatic Romance … Rijeka to Titograd
    • Always something there to remind me…
    • A Well-Loved Pet
    • Candidly Yours…
    • Memoir Writing
    • River Girl: An Early Chapter of my Memoir in Progress
  • Welcome
  • Contact

Anne Skyvington

The Craft of Writing

  • Writing
    • Craft
      • Structuring a Short Story
      • Alternative Narrative Approaches
      • Genre in Writing
      • A Grain of Folly
        • Novel Writing
          • The Sea Voyage: a metaphor
          • How I Created My Debut Novel
          • What I learnt from writing a novel…
          • Short Story
            • At the Swimming Pool
            • The Night of the Barricades
          • Poetry
            • a funny thing happened …
            • An ancient mystic: Rumi
            • A Window into Poetry
            • The Voice of T.S. Eliot
  • Publishing
    • A Change of Blog Title
    • 5 Further Publishing Facts
    • 5 Facts I Learnt About Self/Publishing
    • Highs and Lows of Self Publishing
    • A Perfect Pitch to a Publisher
    • A Useful Site for Readers and Indie Authors: Books 2 Read
  • Book Reviews
    • A Story of a Special Child
    • Discovering Karrana
    • A Young Adult Novel: My French Barrette
    • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills
    • The Trouble With Flying: A Review
  • Mythos
    • Ancient Stories from Childhood
    • Births Deaths and Marriages
    • Duality or Onenness: The Moon
    • The Myth of Persephone and Demeter
    • Pandora’s Box
    • 7 ancient artefacts in the British Museum
    • Symbolism of Twins
    • The Agony and the Ecstasy of Change
    • Voices From the Past
  • Australia
    • A Country College Residence
    • A Kit Home Goes Up in Vacy
    • A Sydney Icon or Two
    • 5 things about Coogee
    • Moree and Insistent Voices
    • Things To Do in Sydney
  • Travel
    • A Bird’s Eye View
    • A Tuscan Village Holiday
    • Back to Cavtat in Croatia
    • Travel to Croatia
    • 5 or 6 Things About Valencia
  • Guest Post
    • a father’s tale … by Ian (Harry) Wells
    • A Guest Poem: “First Loves” by Roger Britton
    • A Love Sonnet by Ian Harry Wells
    • “Snakey” by Roger Britton
    • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills
    • A Story of a Genteel Ghost told by Roger Britton
  • Psychology
    • Creativity and Mental Illness
    • Networking and Emotional Intelligence
    • C.G.Jung’s Active Imagination and the Dead
    • Psychology as a Field of Study
    • Western Influencers Down Through The Ages
  • Life Stories
    • Adriatic Romance … Rijeka to Titograd
    • Always something there to remind me…
    • A Well-Loved Pet
    • Candidly Yours…
    • Memoir Writing
    • River Girl: An Early Chapter of my Memoir in Progress
Mythos

Bohemian Rhapsody the Movie

written by Anne Skyvington November 24, 2018
queen-members

See and hear the original Queen “Live Aid” performance on YouTube (below). I love this music, so eclectic and passionate!

I don’t pretend to be a rock music expert, but I do remember Live Aid and the utopian wish we all had, at the time, to relieve African poverty forever. Dying children shown on television screens nightly. It was 1985 and my children were five and two at the time. Vain wish indeed! But I’m glad the concert happened, and that I took part in the heartfelt groundswell, led by Bob Geldof and rock stars of the time.

I loved the film Bohemian Rhapsody. Freddie Mercury, like his adopted name suggests, belongs to modern myths. Seated, recently, next to my partner in the uber comfortable lounges at the Palace Central theatre, I pressed buttons to recline my seat, and ordered drinks from the phones at my side-table.

Bohemian Rhapsody is a British-American joint venture with Fox serving as distributor. Mercury, real name Farrokh Bulsara, was born in Zanzibar, Tanzania in 1946 and moved to England with his parents in the 1960s.

When Mercury died in 1991 of AIDS-related illness at age 45, Mary Austin was by his side as she had been for much of his adult life. He left her half his reported $75 million estate, including the 28-room London mansion in which he passed away and Austin still lives in to this day.

When Freddie Mercury first met Austin, he was 24 years old and she was 19. Their real-life relationship is examined in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” starring Rami Malek as Mercury and Lucy Boynton in the role of Austin.

“All my lovers asked me why they couldn’t replace Mary, but it’s simply impossible,” Mercury once said of Austin. “The only friend I’ve got is Mary, and I don’t want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me it was a marriage.”

Mary saw Mercury go on to live a life of lavish excess, a rock god’s existence fueled by substance abuse and random sexual encounters. Austin would marry and divorce. Austin says she lost somebody she thought of as her eternal love. “When he died I felt we’d had a marriage,” she said. “We’d done it for better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health. You could never have let go of Freddie unless he died – and even then it was difficult.” (OK magazine March 17th 2000).

Freddie-Mercury-Relationships

Different Sides of Love

Of course, there were other lovers, gay lovers, some of whom we meet during the film. Jim Hutton was perhaps his true male love, still with him at the end.

Shortly after the band’s world tour, Freddie begins an affair with Paul Prenter, his personal manager. Mary breaks up with Freddie when he comes out to her as bisexual, although she assures him that he is gay. My very positive take on the movie, apart from the music and the amazing channelling of Mercury’s moves by Malek, is its implicit reference to the many forms of love that a person can hold or experience in a lifetime.

Sophocles wrote that “one word frees us from all the weight and pain of life, and that word is love.” In the west, our foundations of our understanding of love come firstly from the ancient Greek philosophers who identified four forms of love: familial love (storge), friendly love (philia), romantic love (eros), and divine love (agape). And all of these forms of love are present and apparent in the movie  “Bohemian Rhapsody”. But I would add the Dionysian type love, which is represented by excess. We all suffer from, or exhibit, some of this type of love in our youth. Even romantic love is a form of excess in its early stages.

Freddie’s love for his parents is obvious in the movie and represents both the Storge and the Agape form of love. They were followers of Zoroastrianism, which is one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions that remains active. The religion states that active participation in life through good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

On the day of “Live Aid” Freddie reunites with Jim Hutton and Mary Austin, after reconnecting with his family and his father’s Zoroastrian maxim, “Good thoughts, good words, good deeds.”

I say it’s an Oscar deserving movie, despite what critics have said about it.

Queen archivist Greg Brooks was instrumental in helping recreate each scene to make it as true to life as possible. He worked daily with Fox for months from the beginning, providing answers to questions.

It’s a true winner, just like Freddie Mercury himself, who still lives on despite his early death.

freddie-mercury

The Entertainer

 

 

 

Bohemian Rhapsody the Movie was last modified: January 18th, 2019 by Anne Skyvington
Bohemian Rhapsody the movieLive Aid Concert 1985What are the four forms of love accordign to the ancient Greeks?What does the Greek figure Dionysus represent?Who was Freddie Mercury?Youtube video of Queen
2 comments
0
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Anne Skyvington

I have been a reader/writer all of my life as far back as I can remember. Blogging has opened me up to another world, where I can share my skills and continue to create through word and picture. Writing is about seeing the world and recreating it for others to see through different eyes.

previous post
What is your favourite myth?
next post
Alone not lonely in Apartheid South Africa

You may also like

Buddhism for Westerners

October 12, 2012

Always something there to remind me…

September 19, 2019

The Hero’s Journey

May 23, 2015

C.G.Jung’s Active Imagination and the Dead

June 30, 2019

Poets In Praise of Love

December 12, 2015

Tell me who your mentors are and...

August 8, 2017

Anthropos Rising

June 18, 2015

Our Galactic Address: A Poem

August 16, 2017

What is your favourite myth?

October 14, 2018

Are You Left Brained or Right Brained?

September 15, 2016

2 comments

IAN WELLS January 25, 2019 at 10:47 am

I went to see the biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being transported back to the seventies and eighties by the sound track songs. I came home, dug out a couple of Queen CDs and put them on to play … engaging music, enchanting memories and exquisite listening. The biopic was well made, but the best parts were Freddie’s live performances at the “Live Aid” concert almost seamlessly cut into the Malek action movie.

Reply
Anne Skyvington January 25, 2019 at 10:53 am

You’re so right about those tear-jerking performances. That’s what we were all waiting for. As a bit of a romantic, I fell for the story of his love for a woman, in spite of his gayness! That was beautiful. You’re obviously more of a modern music buff than me, but I’m getting there through “Bohemian Rhapsody”: amazing stuff!

Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington

Anne Skyvington is a writer based in Sydney who has been practising and teaching creative writing skills for many years. You can learn here about structuring a short story and how to go about creating a longer work, such as a novel or a memoir. Subscribe to this blog and receive a monthly newsletter on creative writing topics and events.

Subscribe

Buy online from Amazon

In Australia you can purchase the book from Harry Hartog in Bondi Junction, from Amazon Australia and bookshops linked to IngramSpark

 

Included in Feedspot’s Top 30 for 2020

Top 30 Creative Writing Blogs, Websites & Influencers in 2020

This blog is Included in List of 100 Best Writers’ Sites 2019

 

The 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2019

Connect With Me

Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest Linkedin Youtube Email

Recent Posts

  • The Night of the Barricades

    February 15, 2021
  • How I Created My Debut Novel

    July 4, 2020
  • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills

    May 7, 2020
  • 5 Further Publishing Facts

    April 1, 2020
  • 5 Facts I Learnt About Self/Publishing

    March 23, 2020

Categories

  • Writing
  • Craft of Writing
  • Publishing
  • Australia
  • Childhood
  • Nature
  • Travel
  • Poetry
  • Memoir
  • Emotions and Health
  • Book Reviews
  • Guest Post
  • Art
  • Politics

I’ve joined ALLI

About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington is a Sydney-based writer and blogger. <a href="http://anneskyvington.com.au She has self-published a novel, 'Karrana' and is currently writing a creative memoir based on her life and childhood with a spiritual/mystical dimension.

Popular Posts

  • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills

    May 7, 2020
  • 5 Further Publishing Facts

    April 1, 2020
  • The Golden Ratio in Nature

    August 24, 2016

Subscribe

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin

Copyright @ 2017 Anne Skyvington. All Rights Reserved. Site by gina.digital.


Back To Top