The Sad Clown Paradox.
Where humor meets tragedy.
Remember that scene when Arthur Fleck is painting his face like a clown — his day-job.
He's at the edge of a locker room, disconnected from the rest.
The camera dollies-in and we're let in to him.
He looks sad—something is off.
He smiles to lighten the mood. Because his mother always tells him to smile and put on a happy face…
…and it was the saddest smile he ever saw.
Desperate, he drops the paint brush and pulls up his lips into a rictus grin. He holds that position until tears ooze out.
This opening scene of Joker has an uncanny similarity with an iconic Polish painting - Stańczyk.
16th century persona Stańczyk was a court jester.
A jester is to make the guests happy. But in the painting he is sitting alone in a dark room, while a ball is in full swing at the court.
The title of the painting suggests - Stańczyk during a ball at the court of Queen Bona, in the face of the loss of Smolensk.
Until that evening, Smolensk was a Polish town. It's where Stańczyk grew up.
But the letter on the table says, Moscow had captured his fatherland.
When he showed the letter to the officials, they rejected it.
They don't take advice from an arlekin. The ball is more important than Smolensk, anyway.
But Stańczyk realizes its importance. He’s terrified about his country’s future.
His marotte lies on the ground.
The darkened profile of Wawel Cathedral peeks through the window. Next to it is a comet and three stars of Orion’s Belt.
Everything here—facial expression to the ruffled tablecloth—has a language.
Film critics say “Every frame, a painting,” to describe a stand-out cinematography. Jan Matejko’s masterpiece is like a movie snapshot. There’s so much content in it.
Arthur and Stańczyk have a striking similarity, too.
Both are in jobs that make people happy, yet both look brooding. They are alienated from the rest—absorbed in their own thoughts.
They both are prey to the “sad clown paradox.”
It's when comedians make self-defeating jokes about their own misery and mental-disorders.
The early-19th century clown Grimaldi, for example, used to pun,
“I am GRIM ALL DAY, but I make you laugh at night.”
Arthur writes funny thoughts as well, in his joke-diary. One such joke is,
“I just hope my death makes more cents than my life.”
Centuries of gap between Arthur, Stańczyk and Grimaldi. But,
Here we are again—where humor meets tragedy.
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