In everyday cinema life, they determine the program more than ever, but at festivals they are not welcome guests and, if at all, are shown out of competition: films with numbers in the title, i.e. sequels and other types of sequel films. The Venice Festival broke with tradition in this respect this year. The opening film “Beetlejuice” was already a remake of a 1988 film. “Joker: Folie à Deux”, the sequel to Todd Phillips’ 2019 film “Joker”, was now even shown in competition.
But even the original, with its character from the comic book universe at its center, didn’t really fit into the concept of a film festival that celebrates cinema as art. But then in 2019, “Joker” of all things won the Golden Lion – and went on to gross more than a billion dollars worldwide.
Where a sequel to a box office success sees its existence justified by the profit expectations, a Golden Lion follow-up film is under even more pressure: The sequel must prove that it was artistically worthwhile to return to the material. The plot of “Joker: Folie à Deux” follows directly on from the events of “Joker”. Once again played by Joaquin Phoenix, Arthur Fleck is in remand prison following the atrocities he committed, where he awaits his trial.
He is visited by his lawyer (Catherine Keener), who wants to defend him with the strategy that it was not he, Arthur, who was abused since childhood, but a split personality within him who committed the crimes. One day he sees Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga) in a choir group in prison, who smiles at him provocatively. It is love at first sight.
On one level, »Joker: Folie à Deux« is very different from its predecessor: instead of failed stand-up jokes, the former wannabe comedian Arthur now expresses himself in songs from the repertoire of American entertainment from Fred Astaire to Frank Sinatra. The songs are similar in tone, a mournful farewell to the world, which brings us back to the mood of the original »Joker«. When Lady Gaga sings, it sounds better than Phoenix, but she fails to give her character any profile or meaning. You would actually expect the two to break out together at some point and cause chaos again.
But like so many of the expectations that were placed on this film, this one too remains unfulfilled. What Todd Phillips says instead is basically that the Joker character is beyond saving. In the end, you wonder if a film was needed to tell this.
»The Room Next Door« (2024). © Warner Bros. Pictures
A feeling of disappointment runs through this festival year: for example with the Brazilian Walter Salles, who in “I’m Still Here” reconstructs the case of a family father who disappeared in 1970 during the military dictatorship: a touching film with a strong performance by Fernanda Torres in the leading role, but which offers too little beyond the reconstruction of the past.
Or Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer”, whose William Burroughs adaptation with Daniel Craig in the lead role should have been one of the festival’s highlights: Guadagnino atmospherically depicts the gay subculture of American “ex-patriate” in Mexico City in the early 1950s. But he then loses the thread of his erotically charged story when he sends his heroes into the jungle to search for a telepathy drug and loses himself in body horror cinema.
A film that grows after the initial disappointment is Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door”. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton play two friends who have to deal with the question of self-determined death. As usual, the soon-to-be 75-year-old Spaniard tells a lot with color-coded set designs and an accompanying film score. This initially gives the conversation-heavy film a somewhat stiff feel. But little by little, the film captures its audience, enticing them to reflect on death, grief, farewell and forgiveness. Almodóvar is definitely a candidate for an award for best director. The festival ends on Saturday with the awarding of the Golden Lion.
