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Listen to Lady Gaga’s extremely dramatic new companion song from Joker: Folie à Deux

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Listen to Lady Gaga's extremely dramatic new companion song from Joker: Folie à Deux

As a gamer with a penchant for movies and a soft spot for musicals, I must say that the upcoming release of “Joker: Folie à Deux” has me both intrigued and slightly baffled. Being a child of the ’80s and growing up on a steady diet of classic musicals like “The Sound of Music,” “Oliver!,” and “West Side Story,” I’ve developed a keen eye for what makes a good musical great, and what sets one apart from the rest.

The upcoming movie titled “Joker: Two-Face” is the sequel to the 2019 blockbuster “Joker,” a standout film in the Batman universe starring Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a troubled soul who transforms into Gotham City’s notorious criminal clown. In “Two-Face,” Arthur will encounter Harley Quinn, the woman he loves, and together they will create a unique blend of beautiful yet twisted melodies.

Despite director Todd Phillips’ ambiguity about whether the film “Folie à Deux” is technically a musical or not, it’s clear that it will feature singing given that pop sensation Lady Gaga is portraying Harley Quinn. With such a powerful voice like hers, it would be a waste not to showcase it. In fact, Gaga has announced an album titled “Harlequin” in connection with the movie, scheduled for release on September 27th. She’s already shared a sneak peek of one song, “The Joker,” via social media.

Did you know that ‘The Joker’ is a song originally composed for the 1964 musical, ‘The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd’? Over time, many artists have put their own spin on it. Here’s an interesting rendition from Shirley Bassey in 1968 that you might enjoy.

It seems that every song on Harlequin is a cover version. The album features numerous big band hits from the ’50s and ’60s, which suit Lady Gaga’s vocal abilities perfectly. It’s likely that we’ll hear many or even all of these songs in the movie. Here’s a look at the song list:

  1. “Good Morning”
  2. “Get Happy”
  3. “Oh, When the Saints”
  4. “World on a String”
  5. “If My Friends Could See Me Now”
  6. “That’s Entertainment”
  7. “Smile”
  8. “The Joker”
  9. “Folie à Deux”
  10. “Gonna Build a Mountain”
  11. “Close to You”
  12. “Happy Mistake”
  13. “That’s Life”

You can also hear some of Gaga’s rendition of the Frank Sinatra classic “That’s Life” in one of the trailers for the movie:

Is Joker: Folie à Deux a musical or not?

Earlier on, there’s been some debate about whether this film falls into the category of a musical or not. During an interview on Fresh Air, director Todd Phillips set the record straight. He admitted that he may have caused some confusion in the past by saying the movie isn’t really a musical. However, for clarity, he acknowledged that it does indeed fit the bill as a musical. In other words, it’s a film with music and singing scenes, making it exactly what we define as a musical.

So why the waffling back and forth? Apparently it’s all about the feeling:

The musicals I tend to love, or musicals in general, when you walk out of them, you feel a lot better than you did when you walked into them. And oftentimes, you find yourself whistling the music from the musical that you just saw. And I, I guess I didn’t want to mislead people because I don’t know that you leave this movie feeling better than you did when you walked in. So I always think the term ‘musical’ has a very, like, positive slant to it. So in some respects, that was my kind of reticence of using the term.

To me, this feels a bit off-base; if the film includes characters singing songs, then it can be classified as a musical, regardless of whether it brings joy or not. There are indeed many melancholic musicals around. Interestingly, in the movie “Cabaret,” the Nazis emerge victorious, and “Dancer In The Dark” leaves you feeling hopeless. Come on, Todd, let’s not be too quick to judge based solely on mood.

Could it be that the cast and team are avoiding the “musical” categorization because musicals haven’t been highly preferred in the U.S. since the ’60s, and they aim to keep the audience count high? Whatever their motive might be, the movie Joker: Folie à Deux is set to premiere on October 4.

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2024-09-25 18:41

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