Five years after “ Joker ” gained the highest prize on the Venice Film Festival, director Todd Phillips can’t assist however be somewhat nervous about returning with its sequel.
“Joker: Folie à Deux,” one of many pageant’s most anticipated movies of the 81st version of the pageant, premiered Wednesday and theatergoers on the Sala Grande theater gave the film and stars Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga an 11-minute standing ovation.
“It feels right, it feels correct to be back in Venice. It felt like the logical launching off point for us,” Phillips stated forward of the premiere. “On this one I’m a little more nervous. It’s a lot easier to come into something as the insurgent rather than the incumbent.”
A sequel was extra a joke than an inevitability to Phillips and Phoenix whereas making the primary film. For one, Phoenix will not be the type of actor to leap at a “franchise.” But then an concept emerged to discover the music that Phoenix’s character, Arthur Fleck, is listening to in his head. It must be as daring, sudden and audacious as the primary, they thought.
That first movie had resonated in a manner that nobody fairly anticipated: It revamped $1 billion on the field workplace and gained Phoenix the perfect actor Oscar. One of its followers was Gaga, who stated that it “really deeply moved me” and confirmed her one thing she had by no means seen earlier than.
The streets exterior the Sala Grande theater had been full of Gaga followers hoping to catch a glimpse of her on the pink carpet. Gaga arrived carrying a Christian Dior Haute Couture robe and an elaborate Philip Treacy headpiece that was evocative of a funeral veil.
“Joker: Folie à Deux” finds’ Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck institutionalized and awaiting trial for his crimes. The final movie ended after he shoots late evening host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) on dwell tv, which has made him a God to a sure set, together with Gaga’s Harley Quinn who he meets in a unique ward. The two fall instantly in love and take to music to precise themselves.
Both Phoenix and Gaga sang dwell for the movie, with a pianist simply off digital camera who, she stated, felt like one other actor within the scene in a manner.
“For me it was kind of about unlearning technique and forgetting how to breathe and allowing the song to come completely out of the character,” Gaga stated. “It gives the characters a way to express what they need to say.”
Phoenix, who initially balked on the concept of singing dwell, added: “Part of the joy at least for me was taking these songs that were standards and trying to find a way that they were specific to the characters.”
They additionally discovered varied choreography over the course of months for a number of totally different numbers, together with a waltz within the rain. But even with the coaching and follow, they stated, issues had an inclination to alter within the second.
“We all really thrived in the moment and in the chaos of it all,” Gaga stated. “We had to find it every day. What was the truth of the scene, what was the honest moment.”
She added: “You can learn a song, learn a routine for a dance … but that’s not always the most honest thing to do on camera.”
Phoenix lately made headlines for leaving a Todd Haynes movie a number of days earlier than it was to begin taking pictures. He declined to elaborate on the scenario, saying it wouldn’t be truthful to the opposite creatives concerned who weren’t accessible to remark. He additionally stated he didn’t need to concentrate on the load he misplaced to play Arthur Fleck. During the press tour for the final movie, he regretted talking about it a lot.
Gaga made a grand entrance to the Lido on Wednesday a number of hours earlier than the red-carpet premiere. Fans and photographers clamored across the docks exterior of the Excelsior Hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of her arriving. She popped her head out of the non-public water taxi, alongside Phillips and Phoenix, as followers close by shouted “Gaga! Gaga! Gaga!” in unison.
On the dock, she blew kisses to the excitable followers, stopped to signal a number of autographs, and accepted flowers from one keen onlooker. She wore a sublime black Dior Haute Couture gown, beret and sun shades offsetting her blonde hair.
In a pageant lineup stuffed with main Hollywood stars, together with the likes of Angelina Jolie, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, Gaga is in a category of her personal along with her knack for making a memorable pink carpet second.
Six years in the past, for “A Star Is Born,” she made a splash enjoying the a part of the film star — and gave the pageant a few of its most iconic pictures in current reminiscence. Remember her perched on the aspect of the non-public water taxi in that black Jonathan Simkhai bustier gown, blowing kisses to followers and photographers? Or her show-stopping pale pink feathered Valentino Couture robe that appeared to pop much more towards the wet backdrop?
Reviews for the brand new movie shall be out in a number of hours, which might dictate the trajectory of the movie for months to come back and whether or not or not it’s as soon as once more an Oscar contender or one other billion-dollar field workplace hit.
The Joker sequel is competing once more for the pageant’s major prizes towards the likes of Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,”Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer.”Pablo Larraín’s “Maria” and Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl.” Awards shall be offered on the ultimate day of the pageant, Sept. 7.
“The hard part of this is you feel eyeballs on you,” Phillips stated. “You just have a different pressure.”
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