It’s been a few weeks since Joker was released in cinemas, and we haven’t been able to stop talking about the movie ever since, especially when it comes to the relationship between Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) and Sophie (Zazie Beetz) and what was real and what wasn’t.
In the movie, Sophie was a source of comfort and affection for Arthur, especially when his mother’s health was going downhill. However, we later find out Arthur had imagined the whole romantic relationship when he lets himself into her apartment and she’s shocked to find him there and barely even knows his name.
It’s not clear whether Arthur left her apartment after murdering Sophie because of how the scene was cut and edited.
In the scene, we see a moment of revelation on Arthur’s face, then it cuts ot him walking back to his apartment without any definitive answer of what happened to Sophie.
But thankfully Joker’s cinematographer Lawrence Sher is clearing the air.
Speaking with Slash Film, Sher said, “We wanted to make the interpretation of the real versus what’s not real, a part of the viewer’s experience. For instance, his relationship to Sophie is a fantasy to him.
“Some people have asked me, ‘Was she killed?’ [Director Todd Phillips] makes it clear she wasn’t killed. Arthur is killing people who’ve wronged him in a certain way, and Sophie never wronged him.
“In terms of what we did visually to play with the real and not real, there are callbacks and scenes that mirror each other. We leave hints using imagery or way we covered scenes similarly between scene. Outside of that, I like that people can have the conversation and come to their own conclusions.”
Well, that certainly makes me feel better to know Arthur didn’t hurt Sophie or her young daughter as they weren’t his enemies – similarly to how he didn’t kill Gary in his apartment after murdering Randall.