Credits: Harald Krichel / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0.
Joker, a tormented masterpiece, embodied by Joaquin Phoenix. An Oscar-winning film, admired, adored… in the United States. And yet, last night, TF1 aired it and… crash! A flop. Only 1.98 million viewers. A number so low you might think the whole of France had gone on vacation… or was watching Cold War documentaries on Arte. That says it all.
So, why this massive rejection of Joker by the French public? Let’s try to solve this mystery.
The French And American Films… A Complicated Love Affair
The French love American films, that’s well known. But beware, they love the great classics: Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, and for younger audiences, the Avengers smashing everything, or a good Tom Cruise jumping off a building. That’s cinema. But a guy who puts on his own makeup in his bathroom and ends up bursting into laughter because a subway breaks down… that doesn’t go over well.
Why? Maybe because here, we like our big villains to be somewhat civilized. Belmondo, for example. He also beat people up, but with a smirk, a cigarette between his lips, and while jumping out of a plane. Joaquin Phoenix, he prefers the stairs. Very long ones, with strange music echoing behind. Not really our thing, apparently.
Joaquin Phoenix: Too Intense For The Hexagon?
Ah, Joaquin… A genius actor, certainly. But when he grimaces, it’s a whole festival. His facial muscles deserve their own César. Only, by grimacing, plunging into madness, he ends up exhausting us. We want to laugh, we want to cry, but here, we’re just… tired.
A Joker who laughs but doesn’t make you laugh? Hard to swallow for the French viewer. Here, we prefer Louis de Funès. At least when he lets out a cry, we laugh. But Phoenix? Every burst of laughter is an invitation to call a shrink. That’s a lot to handle on a Sunday night.
Lady Gaga In The Sequel? Oh No, Thanks…
The coup de grâce: the sequel, with Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. Yes, the pop star with the eccentric outfits, moving from music to film without pause. An explosive mix that, on paper, seemed promising. But on screen, it’s like adding Roquefort to a chocolate macaron: two strong flavors that don’t necessarily go together.
And a Joker as a musical? That borders on heresy. French fans want drama, not a little tune. The audience probably thought: “No, now they’re taking us for fools.”
Conclusion: Joker, An Inevitable Flop?
In the end, Joker may simply be too American. Too dark, too intense, too… everything. The French prefer a film that alternates between tragedy and lightness, in the style of their great classics. Or they like to retreat into thrillers like Kompromat, a serious film grounded in reality, with a Gilles Lellouche much closer to their everyday life.
The Joker may be condemned to remain that strange, misunderstood character who laughs (or not) all alone in his corner. But no matter—Joaquin Phoenix will always have his place in Hollywood. In France, though, that’s another story…