Bohemian Rhapsody《波西米亞狂想曲》

歐文·格萊伯曼 葉文興 肖維青

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·馬雷克極為出色地再現(xiàn)了搖滾之神弗萊迪·摩克瑞的華麗與驚艷，但布萊恩·辛格中規(guī)中矩的皇后樂隊傳記片實難匹配其主角逼真的詮釋。

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.

弗萊迪·摩克瑞是所有搖滾明星中最放蕩不羈的。他是一個壞男孩歌手，有著著名的齙牙，這讓他看起來不僅性感，更添幾分放蕩，像一個吸血鬼王子般帶著斜睨的魅惑眼神，姿態(tài)妖冶地在舞臺上闊步。20世紀70年代中后期，作為皇后樂隊主唱的摩克瑞正處于全盛時期，他時而沉吟，時而悲號，更重要的是，他擅長飆高音，就像羅伯特·普朗特融入了雪兒和蒂娜·特納的靈魂。像所有搖滾樂手一樣，他可以粗俗不堪，但他悅耳的滑音能帶你飛上天堂。皇后樂隊的標志性歌曲《我們將震撼你》是作為樂隊和粉絲的對唱曲目而創(chuàng)作的，但是摩克瑞演唱這首歌的方式如銀蛇般飄忽而夸張（“兄弟，你是個男孩，吵吵鬧鬧在街頭玩耍……”），使這首歌成為了他強烈信仰的傳達，其中的信息是：他將震撼你。

該如何選定扮演弗萊迪·摩克瑞這個角色的人呢？這就像找個人來扮演米克·賈格爾或者邁克爾·杰克遜——每時每刻，你都會將他與永遠活在我們想象中的流行天神作對比。然而，在情節(jié)略顯凌亂的搖滾傳記片《波西米亞狂想曲》中，弗萊迪·摩克瑞一角由曾經(jīng)參演過《黑客軍團》的37歲埃及裔美國演員拉米·馬雷克扮演，這一角色仿佛就是為其量身定制的。如果說沒有摩克瑞那般高挑、妖嬈，皮膚黝黑而神似的馬雷克在裝上了一副假門牙后，對弗萊迪凸出的上門牙的再現(xiàn)，效果還不錯，雖然它難免會讓人分心，因為那排潔白的牙齒之間似乎沒有任何空隙——就像看到戴了牙套的弗萊迪。也就是說，馬雷克無論形神都與這個角色驚人地相似?？础恫ㄎ髅讈喛裣肭返臅r候，我們總覺得弗萊迪·摩克瑞就站在我們面前。

在舞臺上，馬雷克飾演的弗萊迪是一只寶石鑲嵌的皮孔雀，迷人而不羈，讓生命力從他的身上傾瀉而出，在電影的一組高潮鏡頭——將1985年倫敦的“拯救生命演唱會”皇后樂隊的傳奇重聚場景的完整重現(xiàn)中體現(xiàn)得淋漓盡致。馬雷克，穿著背心、戴著臂環(huán)、留著摩克瑞標志性的一字胡，黑色的眼睛在人群中流淌，向下凝視，他昂首闊步，擺出各種姿勢，帶領著觀眾高聲歌唱，仿佛他擁有整個世界（在那一刻，弗萊迪在現(xiàn)實中也是如此）。

在舞臺下，馬雷克用一種溫和而緊張的方式詮釋了這位明星的魅力與自負的融合。弗萊迪對自己的天賦有著超乎尋常的信心——即使上頜骨比別人多了四顆牙齒，他也自豪地說，這增加了他的聲音力量。馬雷克扮演的弗萊迪有一種迷人的甜蜜。他以同樣溫和、細語的方式對待每個人（至少，在他成為一個吸毒成癮的搖滾首席“花旦”之前），尤其是瑪麗·奧斯汀（露西·博因頓飾），他愛上了這個頑皮可愛的女孩，并與她組成了一個溫暖的家庭。當他在旅途中發(fā)現(xiàn)他對男性的愛慕之后，他依舊努力維持這段關系，這不僅僅是因為他需要隱藏自己的性欲（盡管這是其中的一部分原因），更因為他不允許自己傷了瑪麗的心。

既然擁有馬雷克這樣出色的表演坐鎮(zhèn)，為什么《波西米亞狂想曲》不是一部更好的電影呢？由布萊恩·辛格執(zhí)導的這部電影，盡管主題令人振奮，但它是一部傳統(tǒng)的、走中間路線的、老套的、安全的、相當老派的傳記片，是一部記述事件而不是融入事件的電影。它以一種溫和的沉默來對待弗雷迪的個人生活——他的性取向，他的孤獨，他在同性戀俱樂部里的魯莽冒險，所以即使這部電影真實度較高，你也不會覺得自己完全接觸到了真實的故事。這部影片由安東尼·麥卡登（《至暗時刻》《萬物理論》）擔任編劇，缺乏那種宣泄情感的親密感，也沒有像《席德與南茜》《激樂人心》或《愛與慈悲》等偉大的搖滾世界傳記片的那種真實得令人身臨其境的興奮感。然而，這部電影的局限性最終可能并沒有那么重要，因為它過于輕描淡寫的質(zhì)量可能會被證明極具商業(yè)價值（而馬雷克吸睛的表演則絕對是拿獎大熱門）。

皇后樂隊成員之間的友情看起來很有趣，因為電影捕捉到了他們各自的稟賦，演員們很好地詮釋了他們的角色——格威利姆·李扮演的布萊恩·梅尤為出色，他有著路易十四式的長發(fā)、精湛的吉他彈奏技巧及樂天的坦蕩。電影中當弗萊迪在“拯救生命演唱會”排練時向樂隊透露他感染了艾滋病毒（盡管實際上他當時并沒有，直到兩年后才被確診），這一幕讓人動容，因為在那一刻，這部電影觸及了所有偉大搖滾樂隊的真相：他們是兄弟。弗萊迪一直在與艾滋病做秘密地抗爭，他在這場演唱會上的表演被影片重新定位為抗爭的一部分。他身患重疾，喉嚨不舒服，但他的外表和表演都像是在巔峰時期，這種“表演必須繼續(xù)”的執(zhí)念，證明了他對搖滾的狂熱?！恫ㄎ髅讈喛裣肭芬赃@樣的主線再現(xiàn)了“皇后”的尊貴。? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?□

（譯者單位：上海外國語大學）