The Joker and Harley Quinn | Two funny guns

Appearing on the big screen in 1966, the Joker had to wait 50 years before Harley Quinn joined him… at the risk of eclipsing him. A look back at their evolution on the occasion of the release this Friday of Joker: Folie à deuxby Todd Philips, where Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga play the villainous crazy lovers.

Batman : The Movieby Leslie H. Martinson (1966)

Pow ! Whamm ! Swish ! Batman: The Movieby Leslie H. Martinson, was to serve as a pilot for the series Batman (1966-1968), where Adam West and Burt Ward played the Batman and his young sidekick. For budget reasons, the producers released it in theaters between the first two seasons. Adapted from comic books Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in 1939 at DC Comics, the series and the film benefit from a pop aesthetic, good-natured humor and joyful discoveries. Sporting a mustache under the Joker’s makeup, the imposing and unforgettable Cesar Romero offers a delicious clownish performance.

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Batmanby Tim Burton (1989)

Although the artist Bob Kane claims to have created it, the Joker, which appeared in 1940, is the result of his collaboration with the inker Jerry Robinson and the screenwriter Bill Finger. However, it was Kane who personally recommended that filmmaker Tim Burton give the role of the man with the sardonic smile to Jack Nicholson. In what he calls a psychotic version of Bugs Bunny, the three-time Oscar winner histrionics with so much flamboyance that he relegates Michael Keaton to the shadows, discreetly behind the mask of Batman. Great lover of comic booksNicholson says that the Joker, assassin of Batman’s parents, is his favorite role.

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The Dark Knightde Christopher Nolan (2008)

To create the Joker, Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson and Bill Finger were inspired by the actor Conrad Veidt, tragic hero in The man who laughs (1928), by Paul Leni, based on the novel by Victor Hugo. After the colorful and amusing versions of Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson, that of Heath Ledger, decked out with a Glasgow smile, is certainly the darkest and most terrifying incarnation of the Joker. In The Black Knightby Christopher Nolan, Ledger’s Joker proves a worthy rival for Christian Bale’s tortured Batman. A performance which earned the late Australian actor a posthumous Oscar.

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Suicide Squadby David Ayer (2016)

Live rat, dead pig, used condoms: here is an overview of the gifts sent by Jared Leto to his partners in The Suicide Squad (2016), by David Ayer. Despite his efforts to play the Joker, the actor only received one Razzies nomination in the Worst Actor category. At her side, Margot Robbie, who trained for six months to perform her stunts, plays an irresistible Harley Quinn. Having loved the experience, despite her revealing costumes, the actress reprized her role with the same enthusiasm, five years later, in the sequel directed by James Gunn, who had the good idea to fire the Joker.

Available on Netlfix, Crave and AppleTV

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)in Cathy Yan (2020)

It was in 1992, after seeing Arleen Sorkin dressed as Harlequin in The Days of Our Livesthat producer and screenwriter Paul Dini had the idea of ​​creating, with designer Bruce Timm, Harley Quinn for the animated series Batman. Having fallen in love with the Joker, her patient, when she was a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum, Harleen Quinzel became the psychopath Harley Quinn after the first threw her into the same vat of acid where he had been disfigured. Freed from this toxic lover, here she is again, once again in the guise of Margot Robbie, in Birds of Preyby Cathy Yan, where she has fun with her new friends.

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