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    Lady Gaga on the meaning of the last song

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    Spoiler alert! We discuss the ending of “Joker: Folie à Deux” (in theaters now). Stop reading if you don’t want to know!

    The dancing stopped for Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) and Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga) in “Joker: Folie à Deux.”

    Gaga created a fantasy waltz sequence for the sequel to 2019’s “Joker” featuring two lovelorn Arkham State Hospital inmates: Lee Quinzel (who becomes Harley Quinn) and Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck (who turns back into Joker). But the illusion would always be broken, just like the two people dancing.

    “It’s this shared fantasy that they have,” Phoenix says.

    There are eerily magical song and dance numbers in the untraditional DC Comics villain story. But “Folie à Deux” ends in what director and co-writer Todd Phillips simply calls “a tragedy.”

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    Lee rejects Arthur after telling the jury that he is not the Joker

    Thanks to Lee’s love and her insistence, the broken prisoner Arthur becomes the Joker once again in “Folie à Deux.” He even maniacally defends himself in full Joker makeup and attire in his “trial of the century” in Gotham City for the murders he committed in the original.

    However, the emotional testimony of murder eyewitness Gary (Leigh Gill), the only person Arthur considers a friend, hits hard. Arthur tells the jury that he’s not the Joker, he’s Arthur, and he wishes he hadn’t killed those people. Lee walks out of the courtroom after this confession. The love affair is over.

    “It’s because (Lee) wasn’t in love with Arthur,” Phillips says. “She was in love with Joker, and he’s not Joker. He’s just Arthur, and he can only wear that mask of Joker for so long. The movie is about identity, and is he Arthur or Joker? He’s actually just not Joker. “

    The jury returns with guilty verdicts on all murder cases. But a car bomb explosion (caused by zealous Joker followers) causes total destruction, killing or seriously injuring those present, including District Attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey). Arthur survives relatively unscathed and escapes to Gotham through the destroyed courthouse.

    But his only interest is tracking down Lee and finding her on the famous staircase the two had discussed, where Arthur had first danced so wildly as the Joker. Lee wants nothing to do with him.

    “She never says the word ‘Arthur’ the entire movie. She calls him Joker the entire movie. Until the end, on the stairs,” says Phillips. “And that’s when she says, ‘Goodbye, Arthur.’ Because that’s not the person she signed up for.”

    Arthur is fatally stabbed by another inmate who may be the real Joker

    Arthur is immediately arrested and taken back to Arkham State Hospital. Later, a smiling fellow inmate approaches him and says, “Hey, Arthur, can I tell you a joke?”

    The joke is about a “psychopath” who “walks into a bar and sees this famous clown sitting there all alone, totally drunk. He’s pathetic.’ The psychopath in the joke says to the loser clown, “I can’t believe you’re here. What a disappointment. I used to watch you on TV.”

    It becomes clear that Arthur is the disappointing loser clown and that the joke teller is the psychopath (and possibly “real” Joker). After the punchline, the prisoner stabs Arthur in the stomach. As Arthur crumbles to the ground, dying, you can hear the killer laughing eerily and can even see him slashing his own face with the knife, presumably to make the Joker smile.

    “Maybe the idea is that (Arthur) was never Joker,” Phillips says. “Maybe Arthur was always just the inspiration for the Joker, for something to come.”

    Arthur even had his death and the end of his relationship telegraphed in a disturbing fantasy sequence in which Harley Quinn shoots Joker in the stomach, the same spot as the future stabbing. “So maybe he had a feeling this was coming,” Phillips says.

    It’s over when Lady Gaga sings ‘That’s Life’

    During “Joker: Folie à Deux”, Harley Quinn discusses building a mountain with Joker and sings “Gonna Build a Mountain” about the relationship. The song includes the lyrics, “I’m gonna build a mountain/I’m gonna build it high/I don’t know how I’m gonna do it all/I know I’m gonna try.”

    “But that’s the shared fantasy where they are artists at the height of their romance,” says Gaga. The ending reveals that Lee/Harley Quinn now sees it as just an illusion. The realization leads to a triumphant version of “That’s Life,” with Gaga off-camera. The Oscar-winning singer/actress had held back from singing at full throttle as Lee. But in ‘That’s Life’ Gaga lets loose for the first time.

    “It’s an interesting contrast to the rest of the film,” says Gaga. “It required that song to be full of heart, strength and muscle, and possess a determination that only those who are not afraid have. It’s like it’s from another character in another place.”

    Singing as Lee/Harley after accepting the grim reality required tireless recording before the perfectionist got the truth.

    “I must have sung that literally hundreds of times,” Gaga says. “I tried to find the version of Harley and create a sense of triumph, but also something very disturbing.”

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