This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 132.241.246.111 (talk) at 04:39, 24 January 2007 (→Synopsis). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 04:39, 24 January 2007 by 132.241.246.111 (talk) (→Synopsis)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) For other uses, see a 1997 film. 1997 film| The Fifth Element | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Promotional poster for The Fifth Element | |
| Directed by | Luc Besson |
| Written by | Luc Besson |
| Produced by | Patrice Ledoux |
| Starring | Bruce Willis Gary Oldman Ian Holm Chris Tucker and Milla Jovovich |
| Music by | Eric Serra |
| Distributed by | USA, Spain, Australia Columbia Pictures UK Theatrical Pathé Distribution France Gaumont-Buena Vista International Germany Tobis Filmkunst Italy Filmauro Distribuzione Japan Herald Film Company Portugal Filmes Lusomundo |
| Release dates | May 9, 1997 (premiere) |
| Running time | 126 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $80,000,000 |
The Fifth Element (1997) is a science fantasy, action, comedy, techno thriller film, written and directed by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm, and Chris Tucker. The production design for the film was developed by French comics creators Jean Giraud (Moebius) and Jean-Claude Mézières and shows a strong influence of French comic storytelling and aesthetic style. The costume design was created by French fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, who produced 954 costumes for use in the film.
The film's central plot involves the survival of humanity, which becomes the duty of a taxicab driver named Korben Dallas (Willis) when an extraterrestrial young woman named Leeloo (Jovovich) falls into his taxicab. She is the Fifth Element, whose appearance was prophesized by the Father Vito Cornelius (Holm). Korben's mission is to gather the other four elements before a black planet that represents pure evil collides with the Earth. Mangalors, slow-witted warrior aliens led by corporate tyrant Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Oldman), are obsessed with thwarting Korben's efforts.
Although written and performed in English and set in a futuristic New York City, the film was a British/French coproduction. Most of the principal photography was filmed at Pinewood Studios in England, while some scenes were shot on location in Mauritania. The concert scenes were filmed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, except for the special effect shots that show the Planet Fhloston though the ship's portholes. The Fifth Element was shot in Super 35 mm film format; many scenes contain visual effects, and nearly all of visual effects scenes are hard-matted.
When the film was released, it was rumored by entertainment media to be the first of a two-part series, the second of which would be titled Mr. Shadow, named after the Ultimate Evil character. No such sequel has ever been confirmed.
Synopsis
Template:Spoiler Every five millennia, when three planets are in eclipse, evil is embodied and attempts to turn all light to darkness and all life to death. The weapon against this evil is housed in a temple in Egypt. The weapon is activated by bringing together the five elements of the universe: the first four are water, fire, earth, and air, which are embodied in the form of small, triangular stones, and the fifth element is love, embodied in a Perfect Being. The five elements together produce the Divine Light, which vanquishes the Ultimate Evil for another five thousand years. This weapon was placed on Earth by the Mondoshawan, an ancient and mysterious extraterrestrial race, and the knowledge of the evil and the weapon is passed from generation to generation by a line of human priests who serve the Mondoshawan.
When the Ultimate Evil forms in the year 2263, Earth's government welcomes the Mondoshawan to return and help defeat it. The Mondoshawan attempt to bring the elements back to Earth, but a powerful weapons manufacturer named Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg is employed by an agent of the Ultimate Evil to obtain the stones. Zorg orders the beastly Mangalore warriors to destroy the Mondoshawan spaceship transporting the elements. The entire Mondoshawan crew dies when their ship crashes on a moon, but the Earthlings retrieve a severed hand from the wreckage. This appendage is regenerated in a laboratory on Earth, and resurrects the Perfect Being. The Perfect Being is an intelligent, strong, and beautiful woman with orange hair (Jovovich). Speaking in a bizarre tongue, she escapes the laboratory, and, in one of the film's most recognized shots, dives from the side of the building into the flying taxicab driven by Korben Dallas (Willis).
Korben, a former major in the Federated Army's elite special forces unit, brings the woman to a priest named Vito Cornelius (Holm), and learns that her name is Leeloo Minai Lekarariba-Laminai-Tchai Ekbat De Sebat, although Korben decides to simply call her Leeloo. Leeloo tells Cornelius that the first four elements were not aboard the ship that crashed on the moon; to keep them safe, the Mondoshawan gave the stones to an opera singer, the Diva Plavalaguna. Leeloo plans to rendezvous with the Diva in a hotel orbiting the planet Fhloston, where the Diva is scheduled to perform.
When Zorg learns that the Mangalores failed to collect the four elements, he refuses to give them anything in exchange for their efforts. Seemingly persuaded by their threats of violence, he offers them a crate of weapons as he leaves his office. The weapon is a hybrid of a submachine gun, mini-missile launcher, flamethrower, net-launcher, dart gun, and what appears to be a liquid nitrogen sprayer. However, a curious Mangalore presses a button that triggers a bomb built into his ZF1, inciting the surviving Mangalores to seek revenge against Zorg.
When the Earth's government learns of the Diva from the Mondoshawawn, they reactivate Korben's status and send him to retrieve the stones. In order to transport him to Fhloston inconspicuously, the government organizes a contest in which the winner receives tickets for a cruise to Fhloston, which Korben wins. Korben and Leeloo board the flight and meet their host, a flamboyant radio DJ named Ruby Rhod (Tucker), while Cornelius stows away in the ventilation system, after sending his apprentice to Egypt to prepare for their arrival.
In a sequence of rapid cross-cutting, Diva Plavalaguna beings her operatic performance in the theater aboard the cruise ship, while Leeloo engages in a gun fight and martial arts combat with Mangalores in her cabin. The Diva's ends abruptly when she is killed by Mangalores, who then attempt to take control of the ship. As the crowd flees the theater, Zorg arrives. He intends to seize the stones; he steals a wooden chest from the Diva's suite, and plants a bomb on the ship. Once he departs, he is enraged to discover that the stones are not inside the chest.
After retrieving the four stones from their hiding place, Korben finally defeats the Mangalores simply by killing their leader. Immediately following this conflict, the ship's crew finds Zorg's bomb, and both the crew and the passengers begin to evacuate the ship. Zorg returns while the evacuation is underway; he deactivates his bomb with only seconds to spare, but is killed in an explosion from another bomb, detonated by a surviving Mangalore.
As President Lindberg and his staff celebrate the success of Korben's mission, they are interrupted by a scientist who tells them that the Ultimate Evil (now a fireball 1,200 miles in diameter) has shifted position and is heading directly for Earth. This allows Korben only two hours to prepare the weapon, the operation of which he does not yet understand.
As Korben, Leeloo, Cornelius, and Ruby Rhod return to Earth, the Ultimate Evil continues its trajectory toward Earth. During the flight, Leeloo researches human history on the ship's computer; as she arrives at the "war" category, she learns of humanity's cruelty and hatred.
With only fifteen minutes until impact, the protagonists arrive on Earth and begin to prepare the weapon. They place the stones around Leeloo, then expose each stone to its corresponding element: to the air stone, breath; to the earth stone, dust; to the water stone, perspiration; and to the fire stone, a flame from the last half-burned match in Korbin's matchbook. Leeloo is reluctant to create the Divine Light, and asks "What is the point of saving life if all you do is destroy it?" Korben convinces her there that some things are worth saving, such as love. He tells her that he loves her and they kiss passionately. The Divine Light explodes from her mouth with a scream, and halts the Ultimate Evil in its path, only 62 miles from Earth. The Ultimate Evil is instantaneously petrified and the Earth is saved.
Production
Influence
Some of the elements of the story of The Fifth Element are reminiscent of the segment within the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal titled Harry Canyon, notably, the premise of a world-weary taxi driver in a dystopian future New York City who accidentally encounters a beautiful woman who is at the center of a conflict that involves an evil entity.
Additionally, The Fifth Element shares narrative elements with the French comic book series Valérian, which takes place in a highly-stylized future metropolis and features an masculine protagonist assigned to protect a seemingly vulnerable female character. The female character is named Laureline and is depicted with artificially red hair, while in The Fifth Element, Leeloo has orange hair. In Valérian it is ultimately Laureline who saves her male protector from the comic's main antogonist, who is also named Zorg.
Script
Korben Dallas was originally intended to be a laborer in a rocket ship factory. As the film went into development in the early 1990s, Besson went on to create Léon starring Jean Reno, while comic book artist Jean-Claude Mézières, who had been hired as a conceptual designer for The Fith Element, returned to illustrating The Circles of Power, the fifteenth volume in the Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent series. This particular volume featured a character named S'Traks who drives a flying taxicab through the congested air traffic of the vast metropolis on the planet Rubanis. Besson read the book and was inspired to change the character of Dallas to a taxicab driver who flies through a futuristic New York City.
In an early version of the script, Zorg confronts Korben and Leeloo aboard the cruise ship. Zorg fails to kill them when he discovers he has used all the ammunition in his ZF1, which Korben points out, intentionally mirroring the attempted robbery of Korben earlier in the film. They protagonists escape, and Zorg activates a shield in his ZF1. He lands on Planet Fhloston, and tries to call his secretary to send another ship, but the batteries in his ZF1 telephone die. These events occur in the novelization of the film.
The original name of the character Ruby Rhod was Loc Rhod. This name also appears in the novelization of the film.
Minor roles and cameo appearances
There are several well-known performers in the supporting cast of The Fifth Element. American actor Luke Perry makes a cameo appearance as an archaeologist's assistant in film's prologue. President Lindberg is played by Tom Lister, Jr. (credited as Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.), while General Munro is played by Brion James, who played Leon the replicant in the film Blade Runner. Zorg's Mangolore assistant Right Arm is played in his human disguise by Adrian Thaws, who is better known as British musical artist Tricky.
The man who attempts to rob Korben on his doorstep is played by Mathieu Kassovitz, a French film director and actor who is a close friend of Luc Besson. The member of the cruise ship crew named Fog, who assists Korben in his gunfight with the Mangalores, is played by British comedian Lee Evans.
The police officer in the driver's seat of the flying police car parked at the drive-through window of McDonald's is played by American actor Mac McDonald. McDonald also played Captain Frank Hollister in the British series Red Dwarf, and appeared briefly in the extended scenes at the beginning of the Special Edition Aliens.
Besson cast several fashion models, for both speaking and non-speaking roles. Many of them play attendants on the cruise ship orbiting Fhloston, including Ève Salvail, Nicole Merry, and Stacey McKenzie.
Although not recognizable onscreen, one of the Mondoshawans is played by British performer Jerome Blake, who performed four different alien characters in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, as well as an alien solidier in the film adaptaion of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Cultural references
Several references are made to both real life and fiction sources throughout the film. When Korben is shown getting out of bed, the date on his bedroom wall is 18 March 2263; Besson’s birthday is 18 March 1959. A number of manga volumes can be seen in Korben's apartment, including Adolf by Osamu Tezuka and Sanctuary by Fumimura Sho and Ikegami Ryoichi.
The scene in which a nervous criminal attempts to rob Korben on his doorstep is a parody of a similar event that occurred on the American television series Seinfeld, including the distinctive bass guitar riff used as a musical segue on Seinfeld.
Zorg paraphrases Friedrich Nietzsche when he says "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger." Later in the film, Zorg explodes a telephone booth at the New York Spaceport with a remote control after ending his conversation with his assistant, an homage to the original James Bond novel Casino Royale.
The diva's name, Plavalaguna, is a joking reference to Jovovich's second film, Return to the Blue Lagoon. The phrase plava laguna means "blue lagoon" in Serbian.
The Divine Language
The Divine Language spoken in the film is an artificial language with only 400 words, invented by director Luc Besson and Milla Jovovich. In an interview with Jovovichin included in the bonus feature "The Adventure and Discovery of a Film: The Story of the Fifth Element" on the DVD release of The Fifth Element (Ultimate Edition), Jovovich stated that she and Besson wrote letters to each other in the Divine Language as practice.
The first part of Leeloo's name, "Leeloominai" means "precious stones", and the latter "Ekbat De Sebat" is an honorific that is never defined. No meaning is given for "Lamina-Tchai". "Leeloominai" is the only word in her name that appears in the language.
Music
Much of the film's score, composed by Eric Serra, shows an influence of Middle Eastern music, particularly Raï. The music used for the taxicab chase scene, titled "Alech Taadi" by Algerian performer Khaled, is excluded from the film soundtrack, but it is available on Khaled's album N'ssi N'ssi.
In Plavalaguna's performance, the music and the vocalization abruptly shift from a classical to a techno style. This striking change is cross-cut with scenes of Leeloo's fight with the Mangalors in Plavalaguna's chamber, and the fight choreography is set to the music. In this sequence, the music is both diegetic and extra-diegetic, as the music is audible to the characters in the theater, but used as a dramatic score for the fight scene. This relationship between sound and image creates an unusual cinematic effect.
The Diva Dance opera performance featured music from Lucia di Lammermoor Part Two, Act Two, N. 14 Scena ed aria, "O giusto cielo!" and was voiced by Inva Mula-Tchako, while the role of Plavalaguna was played by French actress Maïwenn Le Besco. As the character Plavalaguna is humanoid alien, her vocalizations seem beyond physical possibility; however, in a documentary feature on the Special Edition DVD release, it is stated that Inva Mula-Tchako's voice was not digitally altered. Canadian vocalist Marie-Ève Munger performed the complete Diva Dance before a live audience, and her performance was later aired on Québec television as part of a promotion for a televised boxing event.
Part One (titled Lucia di Lammermoor) and Part Two (titled The Diva Dance) of this piece are included as separate tracks on The Fifth Element soundtrack, but are sequenced to create the effect of the entire performance seen in the film. The end of Part One blends into the beginning of Part Two, creating a smooth transition between the two tracks.
Two versions of The Fifth Element score have been produced. In addition to the version released commercially, there is a two-disc set titled "The Fifth Element: The Complete Score," that was available exclusively as a promotional piece. The first disc in the set contains 46 tracks and the second contains 31 tracks. The tracks are sequenced in parallel to the film's narrative; although the set includes extended and alternate versions, as well as music used only in previews, and recordings not used in the final film. Tracks 5 through 31 on the second disc are the same tracks selected for commercial release. How many copies of the complete score are in circulation is not known.
Box office and reception
The Fifth Element was selected as the opening film for the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. The film received a generally positive response from both audiences and critics reviews Its worldwide box office gross was more than $250 million USD, more than three times the amount of its budget of $80 million USD. .
The Fifth Element was nominated for an Academy Award in 1998 in the category Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing, and won the BAFTA award for Best Special Effects. It was nominated for seven César awards, and won three, for Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design.
Notes
External links
- Sculptor Keith Short Images of set pieces sculpted for The Fifth Element
- Fhloston Paradise A group devoted to The Fifth Element
