When Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury passed away in November 1991, he had worked on in the studio with the band to the very end, to leave a legacy - the beginnings of a final Queen album. A year later Brian, Roger and John began to face the monumental challenge of fashioning this precious material into a fully fledged Queen album, and almost exactly four years after Freddie's passing on the 6 November 1995 Made In Heaven was released. Universally acclaimed, it was hailed ' a fitting swan-song by one of the most incandescent groups in rock', As Queen's 20th album, it also became their biggest selling studio record reaching #1 in practically every country in the world, achieving gold or platinum status in over 20 countries.
But the release of the album posed another major challenge for the surviving members of the group: Without Freddie, how could the mandatory promotional films for any singles be made? Always at the centre of creative new ways of presenting their music visually, the landmark Bohemian Rhapsody to this day still generated imagery. Instead the group innovatively let new young directors demonstrate their cinematic visions based on the album's music. Knowing of its work with new filmmakers, they approached The British Film Institute, and together with producers Hot Property, the Made in Heaven series of eight films, seen here, were commissioned.
Although Queen themselves do not appear in these films, they have been widely acclaimed since their first screening at The Cannes Film Festival in May 1996. Made In Heaven was officially selected to be shown at the opening gala of the 53rd Venice International Film Festival and subsequently the films have been chosen for The London Film Festival and The Brazil Film Festival.
Choosing to experiment once again in a new medium, Queen have broken new barriers in the relationship between cinema and music. Not surprisingly, Made In Heaven is already being referred to as 'rock cinema re-invented'.