Folie à Deux translates to delusion or mental illness shared by two people who are close to each other. It’s like a shared fantasy, like the one Harley Quinn and Arthur Fleck, aka the Joker, share in the movie.
When I had earlier watched Joker, the prequel of Joker: Folie à Deux, on my phone, lying down in my bedroom, I couldn’t sleep till the morning. I was thinking, pondering. The rollercoaster of thoughts I went through in the days that followed after watching Joker is another story, and I have talked about it in a blog titled Joker: Comedy or Tragedy.
Joker: Folie à Deux became a film I had highly anticipated since the news of its release. I felt like it was a movie for people like us, who spend most of their lives living alone in a dark room, and for us who live without the love of someone close to us. I strongly relate to the movie and the theme it portrays: darkness within ourselves and darkness luring in society.
Thus, when it was released, I made sure to go watch it on the first show in the morning. So, there I was, sitting in a scarcely filled movie theatre, and the sequel of Joker began after commercials and trailers and the movie began with a very skinny Arthur Fleck (the Joker), so skinny that bones in his back dug out of the skin.
The Joker – A Psycho-Maniac Villain or a Mentally Ill Hero?
As the film rolled on, it was clear to see that jail life is far from easy – there is oppression, violence, and humiliation every day that an inmate has to face. That was his punishment for killing five people, and the state was pushing for the death penalty to get the Joker what he deserves, in their eyes – to die.
Now, are those the kinds of things a mentally challenged person with a history of trauma and post-traumatic disorder needs to face? Well, perhaps he deserves it for killing several people, showing apathy, and being dangerous to society.
I found myself caught in an internal conflict, in this dilemma of what is right and wrong. One can look at him with two perspectives, or a bit of both.
Perspective One: Distancing Ourselves from the Joker
You can see the Joker as a psychopathic villain with apathy to people and an aptitude for violence.
A murder can’t be justified, and even more, serial killing, can’t be justified with a mental disorder – I can’t easily say that Arthur Fleck (the Joker) did it because of the mental illness he has and forgive him – for taking away lives of five people and his mother is a horrendous thing. He took the lives of so many and the joy away from their families, and the pain and the feeling of loss their families had to go through, I can only imagine. The families will never be able to live in peace until they get justice, and only with justice, the people who were murdered can rest in peace. And justice here meant a death penalty to the murderer – the Joker.
Perspective Two: Empathising with the Joker
However, how can I turn a blind eye to another person who was a victim of all of this – Arthur Fleck, the Joker? Didn’t he have to go through a shitty life from early childhood and had to face abandonment, trauma and violence that split his brain? He didn’t want this life either but was forced to do so because of the wrongdoings of the people in his close surroundings.
This brings us to a question – What mental illness does the Joker have?
The violence and trauma Arthur Fleck had to go through pushed his brain to the edge – until it made a separate identity of the Joker, a defence mechanism. This is a kind of multiple personality disorder. He also suffers from the Pseudobulbar affect (PBA), which is caused by a traumatic brain injury due to which he can’t stop laughing. The latter made it worse, and he had to face severe violence on some occasions where he couldn’t stop laughing in public. He wasn’t laughing, actually – maybe in his mind, he was crying or in pain, but people next to him felt humiliated, and consequently, he had to face violence on many occasions.
Portrayal of the Joker in Movie – A Mentally Ill Hero or a Psychopathic Villain
The movie Joker: Folie à Deux did a great job when it comes to screening a case of mental disorder and the crimes associated with it. It didn’t portray the Joker as a psychopathic villain who derives pleasure from the pain of others, and rejoices in killing people and causing violence, devoid of kindness or apathy to people. Neither did it portray the Joker as a hero, who is free from darkness within, and isn’t wrong.
Arthur Fleck lived a lonely life and faced disrespect and violence every day throughout his life. He longed for someone who loved him, someone who he could call his own, someone who cared about him, and someone who got him, who he really was inside.
The Joker and Harley Quinn
For a while in Joker: Folie à Deux, he finally gets someone like that – Harley Quinn, someone who understands him and cares for him and will go beyond her way to do anything for him. She doesn’t want him to act like he is alright, doesn’t want him to be all normal. This is something most people suffering from mental illness will relate with – people in society might admit that you have issues and claim to understand you, but in the end, they will want you not to act like it. They will want you to control and not do awful things, and when you commit a big mistake, they might not be able to see where you are coming from.
Yes, controlling yourself is important. Restraining yourself from saying bad stuff or indulging in violence or crime is very important. But let me tell you, a person who is battling mental struggles does so most of the time, tries to break the pattern, and tries to calm down or control themselves from getting angry, sad or breaking into tears.
But mental illness is not only a matter of diligence, and people need active help, resources and therapies, and a supportive environment to get alright. However, the system and the resources present out there for those who are not okay discriminate between those who deserve it and those who don’t, and most people never get help.
They are left to face everything, mostly all alone. What are the consequences? A miserable life, a waste of a lifetime, and crime and violence that stem out from frustration and years of pain. For example, if a bipolar person doesn’t get therapies and help and has to face violence and live in a surrounding that pushes them to the edge, manic episodes and anger outbursts are bound to happen. Here, the greatest victim, perhaps, is the person suffering from the mental illness themselves.
The Joker isn’t crazy about killing people. The crimes he committed were a consequence of tragic events. In the movie, the viewer notices how he longs to have a peaceful life, how he longs for someone to love him and get him. This is the life he yearns for.
Why did Arthur Fleck Kill the Character of Joker in the End of the Movie?
In the movie, the Joker starts to build a fan base, an army of supporters who want him out of jail. Arthur Fleck also wanted to get out of jail, he wanted to be free, and he tried to defend himself in front of the jury in the court case.
However, not everyone was a true supporter of the Joker in the crowd. Numerous people started to see the Joker as an icon of the darkness, and this was promoting crime and violence. This isn’t what the Joker would want – crime in the name of his support. He didn’t want to light the city up in fire, or kill the innocents. No, he only wanted to break free.
And although however much he wanted to be free, he couldn’t see others hurting because of him. He had to tell the world a lie – that there was no Joker. Yes, he could have won the court case, and saying that there is no Joker and everything was just a fantasy would have made that impossible. But regardless of that, regardless of knowing that calling his other identity of Joker mere a fantasy would bring him outlash of millions, and prove all the accusations right, he still did that. He gave up on himself to choose others. I am proud of him, although announcing that brings him loss and he loses everything and, in the end, his life.
I am proud of everything he went through from the beginning of his life, and how he went on, day by day regardless of everything – I can’t help but feel for him. He hid his tears of salts under a happy face.
Joker Folie à Deux Review (Avis Sur Joker Folie à Deux)
By the end of the movie, I had tears in my eyes, and I remember thinking this wasn’t a mere movie. It’s a terrific portrayal of the life a mentally challenged person has to go through.
Joker: Folie à Deux is a high art by Todd Phillips that might even go down as a masterpiece in cinema history. The musicals and the lyrics in the movie are on another level. The movie brings our attention to the careless attitude of society towards a person suffering from mental illness. It highlights how lonely, sad, and in need they are, and help is most often never available, and in the end.
This is a sad truth, and I don’t have it in me to accept it. I wish that more and more movies focus on the darkness that is in the world and inspire the masses to work toward the light. I wish for the things to get better. But that is far from easy. Mental illnesses are hard to cure, and most often, people close to the person suffering don’t understand them. They are often all alone, in a lot of pain, and want everything to come to an end.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Hate the crime, not the criminal.” Well, now I know what he meant. We cannot get rid of the Joker to get rid of the crime he did; he was a victim, too. Getting rid of Arthur Fleck with the death penalty will save the lives of many, but will that save him? Lives cannot be counted as votes; even the waste of one life is a waste, and we must try to save it. To save the world, the world needed to give Joker the peace and therapy he needed. That was the only way.
Disclaimer: This isn’t a spoiler and does not disclose the plot of Joker: Folie à Deux. The blog only discusses the theme of the movie, the thought it provokes, and the feeling it leaves you with. However, if you are considering watching the movie, the blog can certainly tell you what will Joker Folie a Deux be about.
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