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“I hope you don’t mind that I put down into words / How wonderful life is while you’re in the world”
My blog is a quick read in these times of social media: I leave the task of going more in depth up to skilled authors, as here you will always find only extracts of my points of view, feelings and experiences as a globetrotting musician. This is why, also today, I will rely on 3 main points 😉
ROCKETMAN
1
ROCKETMAN, go and see this movie! The splendours and miseries start from Sir Elton’s rehabilitation sessions in the late 1980s to free himself from his addictions. From here, every flashback is a picture full of fantasy and visions, though always interwoven by a realistic vein: his lonely childhood, paying his dues, the cynicism of the music business. Elton produced the film and allowed himself to be narrated in a sincere cross-section of a life consumed between the lights of the stage and the shadows of his own malaise. Unlike other biopics, the amazing Taron Hegerton sings with his own voice and not in playback.
2
ROCKETMAN and BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY: the overlap between two long-awaited biopics and the success (unexpected in these proportions) of the film about Queen, ignites the competition (which is good for marketing), but if we really have to cheer for someone on a cinematographic level, Rocketman wins. Fantasy, surprise, honesty and another big point: gay sex in Hollywood is not something that is generally described and represented authentically and Bohemian Rhapsody is the perfect example of that. Freddie Mercury, the quintessential icon of the queers, in the most brazen scene of the movie follows a truck driver (Adam Lambert) into a dirty bathroom. That’s it, nothing else, the rest is hidden.
Rocketman redefines the depiction of gay sex. The sex scene between Taron Egerton and Richard Madden (John Reid) is sensual and fun, just like actual sex, of any kind. Even in the bravest of movies, the result of sex between men is cumbersome, but Rocketman succeeds in reproducing homosexuality in a sincere way, without turning sexual intercourse into something ugly, obscure. This is enough to make the film directed by Dexter Fletcher a cornerstone of LGBT film culture.
3
ELTON JOHN, I saw him in concert at the Arena di Verona last week: here’s a short video https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2335327186744268 great emotions and involvement of those who, like me, really know his music and has always considered it a musical and expressive point of reference. But whoever was there will remember the evening because Elton started by going on a rant about the Arena’s toilets: a long rant after the first song, piqued and articulated with a “this place should be closed!”. It was a funny little entr’acte for us viewers (not so much for him evidently). But is real life on tour also about this? Yes, it is, I could personally tell you dozens of episodes, and don’t have to be Sir Elton to do it. But “the show must go on” and, in fact, after his outburst about the toilets he sang for 3 hours, without sparing himself, animated by the radical need to give music and love, as seen in the film; the unshakable determination of someone who, dragged into his abysses, finds the strength to get up and shout to the world “I’m still standing“. These are the reasons we love Elton John and the reasons why it will be difficult for you not to fall in love with Rocketman.
