50. The Fifth Element
You humans act so strange. Everything you create is used to destroy.
53 Points, 3 Lists, #16 JP Friction and Kirin
Directed by: Luc Besson
Starring: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman
In a distant future, the Earth must be warned about a powerful entity heading toward the planet to destroy it. The only hope is an alien entity named Leeloo, cloned from a severed arm by the Earth government and kept in a prison for study. She escapes and winds up running into taxi driver Korben Dallas, an ex-special forces hero trying to live a modest life in a vast metropolis. When Korben “wins” a rigged radio contest to a luxury cruiser as part of a secret mission, he and Leeloo end up with the same goal; obtain some mysterious stones that will help them stop the evil heading for Earth. But standing in their way are alien mercenaries and insane capitalist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg. As they various parties race against time to succeed in their goals, there’s one mystery at the finish line that will decide whether the Earth is saved or doomed; what is the fifth element?
There was a film adaptation of Heavy Metal, the American version of the French Magazine Metal Hurlant, but this really feels like the first major mainstream English language film to capture the tone of weird and wild French sci-fi comics. It’s no surprise that Mœbius, the legendary French artist, worked on this one because it does feel like Luc Besson is heavily inspired by his tone and look. Besson had a critical hit already with his action films but this one is a tonally more playful adventure film, creating a wild world and one of the most memorably weird villains. I have a weakness for villains who are both, at the same time, genuinely horrifying threats and also pathetic goofballs. The Fifth Element is a great way to start this list because it really is someone taking an adventure story they began working on as a child and letting that joy to travel into his career with a major motion picture.
Hero’s Journey: The world of the Fifth Element isn’t as overtly anti-empathy as Blade Runner but like that world, it’s a world with a lot of violence and greed and not a lot of love. Over the course of the movie, Dallas and Leeloo discover their own feelings of love which makes their world a better, and extant, place. Dallas is the classic action movie badass cynic but he learns to open up and see more beauty and value.
Ruby Rhod’s journey, is that he fucks.
Trivia
When composer Éric Serra showed soprano Inva Mula (who dubs the voice of the Diva) the sheet music for the Diva Dance, she reportedly smiled and relayed to him that some of the notes written were not humanly possible to achieve, because the human voice cannot change notes that fast. Hence, she performed the notes in isolation, one by one, as opposed to consecutively singing them all together, and they digitized the notes to fit the music. There are a few moments when you can hear the differences in the vocal tones of the Diva's voice.
Ready, Set, Piece
