The genres range from music films to comedy and fantasy.
Queen frontman Freddie Mercury went down in history as one of the greatest musicians thanks to songs like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Are the Champions,” and “I Want to Break Free.” But Mercury not only loved music, he also loved cinema and had a special fondness for black and white films. His passion for cinema began at St. Peter’s Public School in India, where he regularly attended the film club screenings.
These are his ten favorite films:
Prince in “Purple Rain”
Mercury loved “Purple Rain” by and with Prince. It is a semi-autobiographical film about the musician’s early career in his hometown of Minneapolis. Peter Freestone, Mercury’s former assistant, said of Mercury’s fondness for Prince: “If Freddie stayed home at night, he would usually languish in front of the television. He had a video of Prince that he made a lot of people watch, over and over.”
Marlene Dietrich in “Shanghai Express”
Also, Freddie Mercury was a big fan of Marlene Dietrich and he especially liked her in “Shanghai Express”. The film is about a group of passengers traveling through revolutionary-era China from Beijing to Shanghai. “Shanghai Express” inspires with its look and extravagant costumes. When photographer Mick Rock Mercury showed a photo of Dietrich taken during filming of the 1932 black and white film, the band copied the pose for the artwork of the second studio album QUEEN II.
Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot
Queen drummer Roger Taylor called Some Like It Hot Mercury’s favorite movie of all time. In it, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play two musicians who witness a murder. They then flee disguised as women in order to leave the state and thus escape from the pursuers.
In addition, Some Like It Hot also stars Marilyn Monroe, whom Mercury greatly admired. Peter Freestone revealed, “Freddie adored Marilyn for the icon she was and felt like she was being used by the studios who didn’t quite understand what she had to offer.”
Flash Gordon and Highlander
Mercury certainly couldn’t look at these two films in an entirely unbiased manner. Queen wrote the soundtracks for both films, “Flash Gordon” was released in 1980 and “A Kind Of Magic” in 1986.
Freddie Mercury’s top 10 movies in chronological order:
- Shanghai Express (1932)
- “A Night at the Opera” (1935)
- “The Women” (1939)
- “Some Like It Hot” (1959)
- “Imitation of Life” (1959)
- “Cabaret” (1972)
- “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975)
- Flash Gordon (1980)
- Purple Rain (1984)
- Highlanders (1986)