According to Peter Freestone in his book, Freddie Mercury (my paperback copy page 122):
"'Hard Life' was directed by Tim Pope who had made his name by releasing a single entitled 'I Want To Be A Tree' and this was to be his only collaboration with Queen. He was certainly qualified to reproduce Freddie's outlandish vision of the end product. It was filmed in the Arri film studios in the centre of Munich. Freddie had damaged ligaments in his knee inside the New York Bar in Munich in this year, 1984, as was widely reported in the international press."
"The whole point of this production from the Pagliacci opening onwards was to create a surreal fantasy. From the eyes sewn onto his costume to the feathers on his back, Freddie achieves the look of that of a giant prawn in a palace of excess. The voluptuous images were often more akin to nightmare. Many of Freddie's Munich friends were involved, Barbara Valentin as the seductive temptress and Mack’s wife Ingrid feature heavily as does a transvestite ballerina, Kurt Raab whom we also knew by the name of Rebecca.”
“The rest of the band were obviously somewhat bewildered which is maybe why it is so easy to play ‘Spot the Deliberate Mistake’. At one point, Roger is to be seen walking across the set in his trainers whereas in fact he should only have been in his tights. This incident indicates that not all the band were always in on the editing process. Had Roger been involved in this one, the mistake would probably never have been let through.”
“Towards the end of the video, on the scarlet staircase, Freddie visibly favours his damaged right knee as he inevitably sits down on the stair and the whole manner in which he lowers himself indicates the pain he was in. We were in the studio on that day until very, very late, after a couple of bottles of vodka and champagne were brought in. Only Freddie’s immediate coterie stayed on to drink as everyone else was completely exhausted.”
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I googled Pagliacci, but what little I read of it, I didn't see the similarities. Do we have any opera buffs out there?
I have to laugh whenever I watch that song. Yes, I suppose it would be a "tricky situation" and "a hard life" if you were running around in an outfit like that!