ON DECRYPT
Nearly 300,000 entries for its first day in France, already more than 100 million dollars (90 million euros) collected in a week in the United States: the movie Joker , which traces the birth of the famous enemy of Batman, is well left to be one of the cartons of the year at the cinema. Nothing surprising for a movie of superheroes ... except that it is not a movie of superheroes! Not the shadow of a Batman wing in the feature film Todd Philipps, it is the Joker who is entitled to all honors. Never-seen for a "super-villain" because only the "Prince Clown of Crime" has this power of fascination.
There is a little Victor Hugo in the Joker
Few people know but the Joker might not have existed without ... Victor Hugo. We are in 1940. Batman became, in a few months, one of the heroes of the most popular comics. So, to change the gangster and mafia in the small week that the Black Knight confronts every week, its creators wish to oppose a malignant opponent and colorful.
Bob Kane and Bill Finger will find their inspiration in a 1928 film: The Laughing Man , an adaptation of a novel by Victor Hugo. The main character, Gwynplaine, is an outrageous mountebank, disfigured by scars that make him smile all the time. Struck by the grinning face of actor Conrad Veidt, the two authors will literally copy and paste it to create their villain. As for the idea of the Joker, she returns to Jerry Robinson, another comic author who suggested the idea of a playing card with the effigy of the jester.
From ephemeral villain to unexpected star
Still, the Joker was not predestined to become the greatest villain. His first appearance was also to be the last since he did not have to survive his confrontation with Batman. At the end of the story, the Joker attempts to stab the Black Knight, who finally manages to turn the knife against him. We then see the body of the inanimate criminal on a stretcher. It was the editorial leader of the time, convinced of the potential of the Joker, who saved him in extremis. He changed the last box to suggest that the Joker would survive.
Well took him! The Joker quickly became one of the favorite villains of readers, especially young people, and the various authors who wrote the adventures of Batman have not stopped staging his crimes. The various authors who have succeeded over the years have been able to evolve the character to not weary. The Joker has been in turn a mafia gone mad, a bank robber burlesque, a humorist failed and revenge (this is the bias of the film Todd Philipps) or simply a psychopathic assassin.
Comic criminal or true psychopath?
But unlike most opponents of Batman, the Joker does not challenge him on a physical but psychological level. "When he comes into a story, we know that Batman is going to have a hard time, he can hit anyone, anywhere, with great cruelty, he is simply the epitome of madness," he says. François Hercouët, editorial director of Urban Comics, the Batman publishing house. In fact, it highlights the first quality of Batman, namely his gift of detective (Batman is not it the jewel of DC, Detective Comics ?).
In the years 1950-60, the Joker is nevertheless victim of the "Comics Code", a law which censors the comics not to "pervert" the spirit of the young Americans. More clumsy than criminal, less disturbing, it loses its beauty and is more rare. After a return as a crazy criminal in the early 1970s, the Joker will find his final image in the 1980s. At the same time as Batman, the Joker is reimagined by major comics authors such as Frank Miller ( Year One , The Dark Knight Returns ) and Alan Moore ( Killing Joke ). The Joker becomes this tortured clown, more disturbing than funny and the # 1 threat to Gotham.
It is this version of the Clown Prince of Crime that will inspire filmmakers ... and especially the actors who will deliver feverish performances under the makeup of the Joker. In order: Jack Nicholson with his jokes and his frozen smile ( Batman , Tim Burton, 1989), Heath Ledger with his scary make-up and his nihilism ( The Dark Night , Christopher Nolan, 2008) and the last, Joaquin Phoenix, suffers -bony pain and crazy to bind ( Joker , 2019). In Suicide Squad (David Ayer, 2016), Jared Leto (3rd from the left in the photo) delivered a very "gangster" interpretation, certainly bluffing, but far removed from what the Joker really is.
The Joker, it's him, it's me, it's you
And if the Joker continues to fascinate so much, it's because he's more than a bad guy. He is a profound character, in turn surprisingly human and horribly diabolical. The Joker is not a monster, it's a man. A man who has fallen into madness, certainly, but a man nevertheless. A fact that facilitates the identification of the reader or the viewer. "The Joker carries with it a fairly simple premise: it only takes a bad day, the trouble builds up for everything to change, it implies that everyone can have this potential in him of innate chaos, potential that can make tend towards the worst exactions ", explains François Hercouët. "Extrapolating is the idea that we could all be the Joker."
And then there is his relationship, very troubled, with Batman. It is based on a pretty great idea: one does not go without the other, they are two facets of the same coin. Two traumatized men, since Batman, aka Bruce Wayne, saw his parents being murdered in front of him. A dark vigilante on one side and a comic criminal on the other. A poisonous relationship that prevents Batman from killing his negative: even when the hero has his hands clasped on the Joker's throat or fights his massive fists on his frozen face, he restrains himself at the very last moment.
Likewise, the Joker, despite the many opportunities he has had, does not want to kill Batman. "The Joker needs Batman, what do I say, he deserves Batman!", He says clearly in The Laughing Fish , a story published in 1978. "The Joker needs a valuable opponent he's going to take pleasure in fighting ", summarizes François Hercouët. Today, it is the public who enjoys seeing the Joker cause chaos.