ALEX FARBA

JOKER's Triumph at Venice 76
By Alex Deleon

Joaquin Phoenix in his Joker Outfit -- and can he shake a leg!

There have been some pretty strong Jokers in the past, notably Jack Nicholson for Tim Burton in 1989 and Aussie actor Heath Ledger nearly 20 years later in 2008's "The Dark Knight" by Christopher Nolan but all Joker predecessors pale by comparison to J.Ps current interpretation which makes the Joker far more than a two dimensional Comic book clown and turns him into a full blown tragic figure of Greek Tragedy proportions.
Okay.

Arthur Fleck lives with his invalid mother and takes care of her in a ratty apartment house.  His main ambition in life is to become a success as a stand up comedian. He has a job working for a clown agency  entertaining elderly folks in retirement homes. One problem. He has a condition,  to wit, a psychological disorder that causes him to laugh uncontrollably whenever something strikes him funny, so uncontrollable that it scares the shit out of people. He is seeing a black woman therapist about this problem but she can't do much for him and he is becoming more and more isolated and alienated.

 A fellow clown slips him a pistol for self protection because some people find clowns annoying.   Three such young men attack him viciously in a  subway train and kick him nearly to death.  Reeling on he floor from their kicks he manages to pull out the pistol and shoots all three in self defense. This is reported  on TV as a random triple murder by an unidentified clown.  Fleck is now in an awkward position but he has tasted the relish of retribution against a hostile society.  

When he is told by his whacky mother that a man she once worked for as a chambermaid, a certain wealthy Thomas Wayne, father of Bruce Wayne who will later become Batman, is his true biological father, Fleck goes to the Wayne estate hoping to establish a relationship with his presumed other parent.  Mr. Wayne disdainfully turns him away disclaiming paternity and claiming instead that Fleck's mother is dangerously insane, which is why he fired her.  Fleck, highly disturbed, pulls out the pistol and shoots Wayne thus, in effect killing the man who, if actually his father would make him an older brother of the future Batman! -- and their later contention a case of extreme sibling rivalry.

Fleck then goes home to confront his mother with her lies (If she was lying) and now fully deranged, smothers her with a pillow.  Possible fratricide and now matricide.  Meanwhile the fugitive clown has become somewhat of a public hero for killing wealthy people the public regards as heartless exploiters. Fleck in clown outfit is invited onto a popular talk show because of the growing public fascination with clowns. The talk show host is played by non other than Robert De Niro. During the interview the host becomes more and more abusive and derisive of his clown guest until Fleck, having had enough of such public humiliation, pulls out his gun and shoots De Niro dead right on camera.  He is arrested but we know he will escape and resurface later as Public Enemy Number One and Batman's primary nemesis.  

What makes this picture so engrossing is the way in which Phoenix reaches our sympathies as a set upon victim of a cruel society in spite of the fact that he is more or less forced to become a serial killer of sorts.  The uncontrolled laughter is truly frightening, eventually shocking, but there is nevertheless this undercurrent of feeling sorry for his pitiful condition.  Joaquin Phoenix pulls out all the stops snd literally runs wild with the role in his portrayal of a basically soft hearted man who becomes a cackling multiple murderer, but is, like it or not, the victim of circumstances beyond his control. Joaquin Phoenix's ability to simultaneously shock while arousing sympathy for the devil within is an acting tour de force that is beyond words.  

"Joker" was awarded the Best Film Golden Lion prize at Venice 2019 but this was clearly the result of backroom machinations designed to avoid giving that recognition to the real best film, Polanski's magnificent study of the Dreyfus case "J'Accuse".   Since it is the policy in Venice that one film cannot get more than one award, Phoenix did not get the Best Actor award  although Joker is his picture all the way and anybody who saw it knew that nobody could come close to topping that performance.

This situation will very likely be corrected in February where Joaquin Phoenix is just about a shoo in to walk off with next Best Actor Oscar.

The Joker will kill you!