The movie everyone is talking about this month — Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix as the titular Gotham villain — has just won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.
The coveted Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival was handed out to Joker directer Todd Phillips.
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— Biennale di Venezia (@la_Biennale) September 7, 2019
According to The Hollywood Reporter, during his acceptance speech Phillips thanking the studio said: “Warner Bros. and DC for stepping out of their comfort zone and taking such a bold swing on me and this movie.”
The movie is set to hit theatres globally in October and is an origin movie that follows Arthur Fleck, a stand-up comedian who is trying to make it to the big leagues but fails and that eventually turns him into the menace that is Joker.
The movie debuted to resounding praise and applause at the Venice Film Festival. It was apparently so good that audience members gave it an eight-minute long standing ovation in Venice.
In previous interviews, he explained just how different his new iteration of the dark character really is.
“I don’t think it was this Joker’s goal to watch the world burn. This Joker had an entirely different goal in mind,”
“In the beginning of the movie he’s sitting here doing this [forcing himself to smile and frown] in the very first scene, and it’s a guy searching for identity.”
Phoenix underwent a dramatic tranformation while preparing to play the character and lost 52 pounds for the role.
“The first thing for us was the weight loss,” said Phoenix. “I think that’s really what I started with. And, as it turns out, that then affects your psychology. You start to go mad when you lose that amount of weight in that amount of time.”
