Pop megastar Lady Gaga had to “unlearn how to sing” for her role in “Joker: Folie à deux”, the most anticipated film at the Venice Film Festival, which stunned audiences on Wednesday with its cocktail of musical comedy and comic book universe.
This “is not a sequel,” was careful to point out director Todd Phillips, who created a surprise by winning the Golden Lion with his first “Joker” five years ago.
That film was also deeply divisive, grossing over $1 billion in box office revenue but drawing criticism for its sometimes gratuitous violence. The second, which runs 2 hours and 18 minutes, is also “not a response” to those criticisms, Phillips said.
Yet, while “Joker”, released in the middle of the Trump presidency, captured the spirit of the times by drawing inspiration from the rise of populism against a backdrop of gaping social inequalities, the second is being released in the middle of the US election campaign. And it too will certainly be read in this light.
Joaquin Phoenix takes up the title role where he left off. Interned in Arkham Asylum, the Joker is taken out to answer to justice for the five murders committed in the first part.
“Joker: Folie à deux” is therefore a trial film, where we see Arthur Fleck’s character dismiss his lawyer to defend himself, disguised as the Joker.
He does not hesitate to ridicule the judicial institution and to play the people against the powerful by addressing the crowds of his supporters who follow the hearings on television – an obvious parallel with the behavior of former President Trump before the courts.
Prosecutor Harvey Dent (another character from the Batman universe) is played by British actor Harry Lawtey. All this ultimately leaves little room for Lady Gaga to develop the new character of Harley Quinn, already played in the cinema by Margot Robbie in “Suicide Squad” in particular.
– “Don’t leave me” –
The singer, who broke onto the big screen in “A Star is Born” (2018), Bradley Cooper’s film about a music star, after small roles here and there, is nevertheless counting on this feature film to establish her status as an actress in her own right.
In keeping with the mythology of the Gotham City universe, her character in the black and red plaid harlequin costume is a psychiatrist who forms a relationship with the Joker.
In “Joker: Folie à deux”, she presents herself as an asylum resident, the only one capable of understanding the tormented soul of the anti-hero.
The film features many Broadway-style sung passages. The musical is a very popular genre, from “Barbie” to Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” but “I wouldn’t say that it (is) one per se,” Lady Gaga qualified.
“We use music to really give the characters a way to express what they have to say, because going through dialogue is not enough,” she explained.
For a more natural feel, the songs were sung live on set, and Lady Gaga confided that she had “unlearned how to sing, forgotten how to breathe.” Imperfection must be felt – and is felt – on screen.
Joaquin Phoenix, who already sang in the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line” (2005), does not disappoint, particularly in a very free cover of “Ne me quitte pas” by Nina Simone, among other great classics.
Attention fans, still no Batman in sight in this sequel. And Todd Phillips, who had made a big splash by subverting the superhero genre in the first opus, clearly means that he intends to stop there and will not develop one of these franchises that the film industry is nevertheless fond of.
Finally, note that Lady Gaga also revealed, in a photo posted on her Instagram account, that the first track from her next album entitled “LG7” would be released in October.
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