TRACING EXPRESSIONISTIC ELEMENTS AND COLOR SEMIOTICS IN TODD PHILLIPS’S JOKER (2019)

The Movie Joker directed by Todd Phillips, deals with the behavior of a mentally disturbed person named Arthur Fleck, who feels persecuted by society. He finally takes revenge upon the world that has ignored and abused him by becoming a more disturbed insane agent of chaos. As the director Todd Phillips puts it, the movie is a “character study” of one of the most famous villains of DC comics, which is Joker. The paper tries to trace the Expressionistic elements present in the movie, which betray the complex character of Joker. Expressionist films attempt to present onscreen, unnatural acts or realties and the subjective mad world of the characters. The visual representation of violence, trauma and madness are addressed in the paper. It also attempts a semiotic analysis of the movie, based on the color palette and lighting used in portraying the complex psyche of Arthur Fleck and the transformation of Arthur into “The clown Prince of Crime”.