Joker: Did Arthur kill his neighbour Sophie? Cinematographer answers

One of the big questions Joker fans have been debating since the movie’s theatrical release on October 4 was whether Arthur Fleck killed his neighbour, a single mother, Sophie Dumond, whose romance with the protagonist was revealed to be a hallucination. The scene where he confronts her in her flat and frightens her with his behaviour before leaving, had left many wondering if he had killed her and her daughter.

The film's cinematographer Lawrence Sher has finally shed some light on the mystery. 

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Sophie's fate

In the film, Sophie is seen hanging out and enjoying her time with Arthur. Later, viewers learn that the relationship is merely a product of Arthur's imagination. In a scene, Arthur was seen lurking ominously in her apartment, completely over the edge after a bad day, and then leaving the apartment with lights flashes in distance supposedly denoting a possible crime. As Arthur is portrayed to have a violent streak, audiences suspected him to have killed her. Putting an end to all doubts, Sher revealed what actually happened to Sophie in an interview.

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He said that it was their work to make the audience interpret the real versus what's not real. He said that director Todd Phillips has made it clear that Sophie was not killed. Arthur killed only those people who had wronged him, and Sophie never wronged him. 

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Arthur's head was virtual but was happened for real was shown real: Sher 

To play out the virtual and real, Sher said that there were callbacks and scenes that mirror each other. He said that they left hints using imagery or the way they covered scenes similarly between scene. The cinematographer was glad that people are still thinking and coming up with their own conclusions.

He also mentioned the process that went into the sequence of the now-iconic steps in which Arthur dances down a flight of stairs, happily embracing his new persona of the Joker. He said that the scene is a celebration of him accepting his true self which is villainous. Explaining the camera work, Sher said that the scene is unlike the slow, deliberate and very meditative camerawork that exists at the beginning of the movie. Speaking about the technical aspects, the cinematographer said that for the last scene on the stairs, they used a techno crane, which gave the team fluidity to move with him and create energy. 

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