The teaser trailer starts with an aggressively contemporary drone shot of a city. Gotham City? The Batman / Joker origin story trailer propels us into a violent little world of classic cinema references.
And then, the tide turns, and we see gritty, dirty streets and an isolated protagonist writing his thoughts alone; we are in his thoughts, alone. The trailer creeps into Scorsese-like grime with the power of Taxi Driver’s lonely and dramatic tone. The world beats him down.
The music picks up and a version of “Smile” plays (a song that is based on the theme from Modern Times, a Charlie Chaplin movie). Again, we are channeled into another Scorsese movie, the black comedy “The King Of Comedy”. We see comedy clubs, Joker laughs in the audience, a late night host… Was that Robert Deniro? (The star of both Taxi Driver, and The King Of Comedy).
“I used to think my life was a tragedy… but now I realize: It’s a comedy.”
The Joker
Photo / Warner Brothers
The trailer ends with The Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) revealing that he “used to think his life was a tragedy… But now I realize: It’s a comedy.” In Theaters October 4, 2019.