The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. It’s also one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, alongside Cannes and the Berlin International Film Festival. So, if a film receives a standing ovation at Venice, you know it’s probably something very, very special. Well, a few hours ago, Todd Phillips’ Joker received an eight-minute standing ovation as well as shouts of “bravo!” when it concluded.
Those who were in attendance at the festival are also reporting that both press screenings of the film drew loud applause from the crowd, especially when Joaquin Phoenix’s name popped up during the closing credits. Per Variety:
Buzz in Venice had been growing steadily around the Warner Bros. movie [Joker], from the time of its unveiling last month as part of the lineup to the climax of the two press screenings and red-carpet premiere Saturday. Both press screenings were packed, with the second one also drawing loud applause at the end and cheers when Phoenix’s name appeared in the closing credits.
This comes at the heels of the film getting picked to be screened at the ‘Gala Presentations’ of the Toronto International Film Festival, the first for a comic book movie in the festival’s four-decade-long history.
Official synopsis of Joker:
Director Todd Phillips Joker centres around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night…but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.
Joker is set to hit Malaysian cinemas on 3 October 2019.
