Bohemian Rhapsody《波西米亚狂想曲》

欧文·格莱伯曼 叶文兴 肖维青

Rami Malek does a commanding job of channeling Freddie Mercury’s flamboyant rock-god bravura， but Bryan Singer’s middle-of-the-road Queen biopic rarely lives up to the authenticity of its lead performance.拉米·馬雷克极为出色地再现了摇滚之神弗莱迪·摩克瑞的华丽与惊艳，但布莱恩·辛格中规中矩的皇后乐队传记片实难匹配其主角逼真的诠释。

By Owen Gleiberman

Freddie Mercury was the most majestically debauched of all rock stars. A bad-boy diva with a famous overbite that made him look not just sexy but libidinous， he strutted around onstage with the come-hither flamboyance of a leering vampire prince. In his heyday as the lead singer of Queen， during the mid-to-late 1970s， Mercury crooned and wailed， but more than that he soared， like Robert Plant fused with the spirits of Cher and Tina Turner. He was as down-and-dirty as any rock ‘n’ roller， but his melodic glide could lift you to the heavens. Queen’s iconic anthem “We Will Rock You” was written as a call-and-response between the band and its fans， but the way Mercury sang it， with his snaky grandiloquence （“Buddy， you’re a boy， make a big noise playing in the street…”） the song came off as his unholy credo. The message was： He will rock you.

How do you cast the role of Freddie Mercury？ It’s like finding someone to play Mick Jagger or Michael Jackson—at every moment， you’re going up against the real thing， a pop deity who has never stopped living inside our imaginations. Yet in the scrappy and sprawling rock biopic Bohemian Rhapsody， Rami Malek， the 37-year-old Egyptian-American actor from Mr. Robot2， takes on the role of Freddie Mercury as if born to it. Swarthy and insinuating， if neither as tall nor as serpentine as Mercury， Malek has been outfitted with a set of fake front teeth， a recreation of the jutting Freddie overbite that works well enough， though it’s often a bit distracting， because there don’t appear to be any spaces between the pearly whites—it’s like seeing a Freddie who got his teeth capped. That said， Malek winds up looking， and inhabiting， the part to a remarkable degree. Watching Bohemian Rhapsody， we always feel like we’re seeing Freddie Mercury standing right in front of us.

Onstage， Malek’s Freddie is a studded leather peacock， swoony and liberated， letting the life force pour out of him in a glorious tremolo， most extraordinarily during the film’s climactic sequence， a song-for-song， move-for-move reenactment of Queen’s legendary reunion set at the London Live Aid concert3 in 1985. Malek， wearing a wife beater and arm band and Mercury’s signature honcho mustache， with liquid dark eyes that drink in the crowd and stare it down， struts and poses and leads the audience in vocal chants as if he owned the world （which， at that moment， Freddie sort of did）.

Offstage， Malek nails the star’s fusion of charm and ego with a suavely nervy command. Freddie possesses an awesome belief in his own talent—right down to the four extra teeth on his upper jaw， which he proudly claims add to his vocal power. Yet the way Malek plays him， there’s a captivating sweetness to Freddie. He treats everyone with the same soft-edged， velvet-voiced regard （at least， until he becomes a drugged-out rock-star prima donna）， notably Mary Austin （Lucy Boynton）， the playful and loving lass he falls for and forms a tender domestic union with. When he struggles to keep the relationship going after he discovers， on the road， that his essential attraction is to men， it’s not just because he’s concealing his erotic drive （though that’s part of it）. It’s as though he can’t bring himself to break Mary’s heart.

So with a performance as commanding as Rami Malek’s at its center， why isn’t Bohemian Rhapsody a better movie？ Directed by Bryan Singer， the movie， despite its electrifying subject， is a conventional， middle-of-the-road， cut-and-dried， play-it-safe， rather fuddy-duddy old-school biopic， a movie that skitters through events instead of sinking into them. And it treats Freddie’s personal life—his sexual-romantic identity， his loneliness， his reckless adventures in gay leather clubs—with kid-gloves reticence， so that even if the film isn’t telling major lies， you don’t feel you’re fully touching the real story either. As scripted by Anthony McCarten （Darkest Hour， The Theory of Everything）， it lacks the cathartic intimacy， the rippingly authentic you-are-there excitement of a great rock-world biopic like Sid and Nancy4 or Get On Up5 or Love & Mercy6. Yet the film’s limitations may not end up mattering all that much， since its once-over-lightly quality could prove to be highly commercial （and Malek’s captivating performance is pure awards bait）.

The camaraderie among the members of Queen is fun to behold， because the film captures what different cloths they were cut from， and the actors fill in their roles—Gwilym Lee is especially good as Brian May， with his Louis XIV mane， virtuoso guitar licks， and jovial straight-arrow crispness. When Freddie reveals to the band， during rehearsals for the Live Aid show， that he has HIV （even though he wasn’t， in fact， diagnosed until two years later）， it’s moving， because at that moment the film touches the truth of all great rock bands： that they’re brothers. Freddie’s Live Aid performance gets reconfigured into his secret way of fighting back against the disease. He’s sick， with an ailing throat， but he looks and performs as though he’s in his prime， a show-must-go-on mirage that’s a testament to his rock ‘n’ roll fervor. In a sequence like that， Bohemian Rhapsody nails Queen’s majesty.

弗莱迪·摩克瑞是所有摇滚明星中最放荡不羁的。他是一个坏男孩歌手，有着著名的龅牙，这让他看起来不仅性感，更添几分放荡，像一个吸血鬼王子般带着斜睨的魅惑眼神，姿态妖冶地在舞台上阔步。20世纪70年代中后期，作为皇后乐队主唱的摩克瑞正处于全盛时期，他时而沉吟，时而悲号，更重要的是，他擅长飙高音，就像罗伯特·普朗特融入了雪儿和蒂娜·特纳的灵魂。像所有摇滚乐手一样，他可以粗俗不堪，但他悦耳的滑音能带你飞上天堂。皇后乐队的标志性歌曲《我们将震撼你》是作为乐队和粉丝的对唱曲目而创作的，但是摩克瑞演唱这首歌的方式如银蛇般飘忽而夸张（“兄弟，你是个男孩，吵吵闹闹在街头玩耍……”），使这首歌成为了他强烈信仰的传达，其中的信息是：他将震撼你。

该如何选定扮演弗莱迪·摩克瑞这个角色的人呢？这就像找个人来扮演米克·贾格尔或者迈克尔·杰克逊——每时每刻，你都会将他与永远活在我们想象中的流行天神作对比。然而，在情节略显凌乱的摇滚传记片《波西米亚狂想曲》中，弗莱迪·摩克瑞一角由曾经参演过《黑客军团》的37岁埃及裔美国演员拉米·马雷克扮演，这一角色仿佛就是为其量身定制的。如果说没有摩克瑞那般高挑、妖娆，皮肤黝黑而神似的马雷克在装上了一副假门牙后，对弗莱迪凸出的上门牙的再现，效果还不错，虽然它难免会让人分心，因为那排洁白的牙齿之间似乎没有任何空隙——就像看到戴了牙套的弗莱迪。也就是说，马雷克无论形神都与这个角色惊人地相似。看《波西米亚狂想曲》的时候，我们总觉得弗莱迪·摩克瑞就站在我們面前。

在舞台上，马雷克饰演的弗莱迪是一只宝石镶嵌的皮孔雀，迷人而不羁，让生命力从他的身上倾泻而出，在电影的一组高潮镜头——将1985年伦敦的“拯救生命演唱会”皇后乐队的传奇重聚场景的完整重现中体现得淋漓尽致。马雷克，穿着背心、戴着臂环、留着摩克瑞标志性的一字胡，黑色的眼睛在人群中流淌，向下凝视，他昂首阔步，摆出各种姿势，带领着观众高声歌唱，仿佛他拥有整个世界（在那一刻，弗莱迪在现实中也是如此）。

在舞台下，马雷克用一种温和而紧张的方式诠释了这位明星的魅力与自负的融合。弗莱迪对自己的天赋有着超乎寻常的信心——即使上颌骨比别人多了四颗牙齿，他也自豪地说，这增加了他的声音力量。马雷克扮演的弗莱迪有一种迷人的甜蜜。他以同样温和、细语的方式对待每个人（至少，在他成为一个吸毒成瘾的摇滚首席“花旦”之前），尤其是玛丽·奥斯汀（露西·博因顿饰），他爱上了这个顽皮可爱的女孩，并与她组成了一个温暖的家庭。当他在旅途中发现他对男性的爱慕之后，他依旧努力维持这段关系，这不仅仅是因为他需要隐藏自己的性欲（尽管这是其中的一部分原因），更因为他不允许自己伤了玛丽的心。

既然拥有马雷克这样出色的表演坐镇，为什么《波西米亚狂想曲》不是一部更好的电影呢？由布莱恩·辛格执导的这部电影，尽管主题令人振奋，但它是一部传统的、走中间路线的、老套的、安全的、相当老派的传记片，是一部记述事件而不是融入事件的电影。它以一种温和的沉默来对待弗雷迪的个人生活——他的性取向，他的孤独，他在同性恋俱乐部里的鲁莽冒险，所以即使这部电影真实度较高，你也不会觉得自己完全接触到了真实的故事。这部影片由安东尼·麦卡登（《至暗时刻》《万物理论》）担任编剧，缺乏那种宣泄情感的亲密感，也没有像《席德与南茜》《激乐人心》或《爱与慈悲》等伟大的摇滚世界传记片的那种真实得令人身临其境的兴奋感。然而，这部电影的局限性最终可能并没有那么重要，因为它过于轻描淡写的质量可能会被证明极具商业价值（而马雷克吸睛的表演则绝对是拿奖大热门）。

皇后乐队成员之间的友情看起来很有趣，因为电影捕捉到了他们各自的禀赋，演员们很好地诠释了他们的角色——格威利姆·李扮演的布莱恩·梅尤为出色，他有着路易十四式的长发、精湛的吉他弹奏技巧及乐天的坦荡。电影中当弗莱迪在“拯救生命演唱会”排练时向乐队透露他感染了艾滋病毒（尽管实际上他当时并没有，直到两年后才被确诊），这一幕让人动容，因为在那一刻，这部电影触及了所有伟大摇滚乐队的真相：他们是兄弟。弗莱迪一直在与艾滋病做秘密地抗争，他在这场演唱会上的表演被影片重新定位为抗争的一部分。他身患重疾，喉咙不舒服，但他的外表和表演都像是在巅峰时期，这种“表演必须继续”的执念，证明了他对摇滚的狂热。《波西米亚狂想曲》以这样的主线再现了“皇后”的尊贵。                                   □

（译者单位：上海外国语大学）