Drama II

When doing research on the film genre drama I stumbled across this video and became extremely intrigued.







An IMDb summary of the 2019 film Joker describes the movie as

In Gotham City, mentally troubled comedian Arthur Fleck is disregarded and mistreated by society. He then embarks on a downward spiral of revolution and bloody crime. This path brings him face-to-face with his alter-ego: the Joker.

While including film credits/title and genre conventions the film opening also includes an introduction to the main character and his life.

Through this opening scene, the audience is introduced to a man who works as a clown for a living and gets bullied for it. He fakes a smile through the pain.

The director describes the scene as Arthur, the main character, trying to figure out if his life is a comedy or a tragedy. Arthur's job provides him to be someone he's not and he gets lost in his work. All the techniques used in this scene help portray this and his overall character.

The score and color editing help portray that this film is a drama. Serious music and drab coloring are used throughout.

The opening starts with a man in a room separate from everyone else looking into a mirror trying to fake a smile thinking about his life. By having him secluded from everyone else in the room it shows how he is different and doesn't connect with them. The scene then cuts to him doing his job, flipping a sign on the sidewalk. Teenage boys come and torment him ending with Arthur on the floor showing the realization of how awful his life truly is.

If you want to check out the full Joker movie intro: