Joker
Todd Phillips / US, CA, 2019 / 122 min.
Joaquin Phoenix was unanimously praised for his role as Arthur Fleck, the vulnerable, maniacal loner who through a pitiful chain of events would become known as the character of The Joker. The impact of this 'prequel' to the Batman-saga can be in no small part credited to the beautifully dark and minimalistic score by Hildur Guðnadóttir. Before the screening a pre-recorded video-interview by Eye on Sound programmer Thijs Havens with Guðnadóttir will be screened (30 min), conducted especially for this occassion.
Hildur Guðnadóttir was no newcomer to Hollywood, thanks to her cello performance in Ryuichi Sakamoto’s score for The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015) and many other films. Not long after, she received an Oscar for the score she composed for Joker, making history as the first woman ever to win in that category.
Guðnadóttir’s film music is regularly cited as a prime example of the striking shift taking place in the world of film music. For a long time film scores were too often weakened into quasi-interchangeable orchestral music. Now, however, young film composers with guts, with a signature of their own and a disregard of conventions have lately been coming to the fore.
The score for Joker is a shining example of this trend. Bombastic themes are discarded to make room for an abstract, ominous sound design interspersed with trenchant solo cello playing. The score is nonconformist, does not aim to please and is arranged with singular austerity. Guðnadóttir thus single-handedly managed to lift the film, including Joaquin Phoenix’s maniacal role as The Joker, to a higher plane.
This is part of
Details
Director
Todd Phillips
Production year
2019
Country
US, CA
Original title
Joker
Length
122 min.
Language
English
Subtitles
NLD
Format
DCP
Part of
Holland Festival 2021
This year, Eye puts the spotlight on Ryuichi Sakamoto, one of the associate artists of the Holland Festival 2021. Sakamoto's latest work Time will premiere during the festival, an unconventional wordless opera he made together with visual artist Shiro Takatani. Eye will organise seven accompanying programmes in June focusing on Sakamoto's illustrious career.
In collaboration with
Planning on having a drink or a bite to eat? Book online for Eye bar-restaurant.