Todd Phillips breaks down the opening scenes of Joker

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Much has been written about Todd Phillips' JOKER now that it's hit theaters, and the director himself spoke with Vanity Fair to break down the film's opening scenes, which introduces us to the sad life of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix). You can check out the video for yourself above, but Phillips gets the ball rolling by saying that he's most proud of the tone of JOKER, with its slow ramp up into insanity.

"Everything in the movie is meant to be unsettling," Phillips said of our first introduction to Arthur. "So anytime we kind of move the camera intentionally like this, it’s always to give off this unsettling vibe of this guy, who's pretty much separated from everyone else." Phillips also revealed that at least part of the film's score, which was composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir (SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO), was recorded based on the script so that they would be able to play it while the scene was being shot in order to "infect" the set.

JOKER is now playing in theaters, so be sure to check out reviews of the film from our own Paul Shirey and Chris Bumbray as well as let us know what you thought of the film!