Paris (AFP)

Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Todd Phillips' long-awaited "Joker" about the origins of Batman's arch-enemy with Joaquin Phoenix, is theatrically released amid controversy in the United States over the fact that he may incite violence.

The film, on screens Friday in the United States and next Wednesday in France, has greatly attracted the press in Venice, especially for the remarkable performance of Joaquin Phoenix - impressive and disturbing wish in this role for which he did not not saved. He explores the origins of the emblematic figure of the Joker through a new story, giving a new approach to the genre.

He is interested in Arthur Fleck, the one who will become the Joker. In the early 1980s in Gotham City, Arthur is a street or hospital clown, dreaming of a career as a stand-up comedian, fascinated by the television show of a famous animator played by Robert De Niro .

Living alone with his mother, he suffers from troubles that make him regularly burst out with a painful laugh. Following a series of setbacks - losing both his work and his medical follow-up, repeatedly assaulted, making discoveries about his past - this man abused by society will gradually turn into madness to become the Joker, Machiavellian and violent character.

Crowned by the highest award in Venice, "Joker" however quickly sparked a controversy in the United States, even before its release.

Some fear that the film may incite violence, questioning Todd Phillips' empathy with his hero.

Sign of this tension, the Los Angeles police announced Friday that it would increase its presence around the cinemas that will project the film, while the controversy raises fears of some the possibility of acts of violence.

- "no bad guy" -

Families of victims of the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting of a 24-year-old who opened fire during the screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" last week published an open letter to Warner studio, regretting a film that "presents this character and his story with compassion".

Warner responded, claiming that "neither the fictional character of the Joker nor the film support (in any way) the actual violence" and that it was "not in the intentions of the film" to "present this character as a hero".

Todd Phillips is also up for grabs. "For me, the film does not mention blind violence," said the director during a meeting with some journalists in Paris last week, pointing out that Arthur "is not the author of mass killings" .

"All the people that Joker kills in this film are people who, in his mind, have done him wrong, he does not kill at random," he added.

The director also felt that probably "people had been a little surprised by the approach chosen," to present Joker initially as a sick man.

"In general, in superhero films, and even in movies in general, there is the villain and the nice guy, things are very clear, and in our film, the good guy becomes the bad guy. There is no villain, he is both, "he continued. "I'm not surprised people are not really ready for this."

Joaquin Phoenix, who had left an interview with the English newspaper The Telegraph after a question about the controversy, has preferred to focus on his character, which he appropriated the evil laugh at the end of a long work.

"I like challenges," he said. "For me, the idea of ​​doing a romantic comedy in the Bahamas seems to me like the worst thing that has ever existed!"

© 2019 AFP