“Leeloo Dallas mooltipass!”
Time for something a little lighter, with a scifi flick that encapsulates what it means to be so silly, but yet so stylish—it’s big badaboom time with Luc Besson’s Fifth Element.
It’s a film that could’ve only come out when it did—when studios were chasing the next big scifi extravaganza after Roland Emmerich’s breakout films, at around the same time when the French cinema du look movement had also broken into the anglosphere mainstream after Leon. And indeed, it’s a film whose style can best be described as French French French French. Between the sheer over-the-topness contrasted with moments of utter seriousness, between the palettes cribbed from decades of Franco-Belgian comics, and the costumes literally coming courtesy of a Parisian fashion designer…there’s no questioning the national origin of the minds behind this one.
The plot is similarly, erm, a little odd. After a prologue in the 1910s, we fast forward to the future where a primordial evil has manifested as a sentient planet, and is en route to Earth. The only thing that can stop it are a collection of stones, and a genetically engineered perfect being. With the Earth government and a corporate puppet of evil (played by Gary Oldman, who looked at his performance in Leon and decided it was far too subtle) struggling to get to both first, said perfect being turns out to be Milla Jovovich, who ends up literally falling into the rear seat of flying taxi driver Bruce Willis. And why yes, when you actually describe it, everything does indeed sound absolutely bugnuts.
But it’s that weirdness, that’s willing to be both nutty and serious, combined with nearly every visual element being all kinds of memorable, that still makes Fifth Element fascinating to watch. Even minor things, like the NYPD cops of the overgrown Manhattan of the future, are very distinct—and the city canyons brimming with Art Deco stylings are still incredible to look at. There’s cool color and shape motifs that make themselves apparent, and you very easily get the sense of every aspect of aesthetic having some kind of passion in it. There’s a very elaborate matte painting of this New York—with rivers dried out, and their beds urbanized in turn—that’s only there for about three seconds, yet it’s insanely detailed. You simply can’t fault the look here--that's also from that time when films like this blended practical model-work and CG to the best of both worlds.
As for the rest? Well, as I’ve said before, one critical element for making run of the mill nonsense into glorious guilty pleasure nonsense is the cast having fun you can share with. Bruce Willis, while he may not have thought much of the product, still effortlessly exudes charisma here (on that note, it’s a type of performance we’ll have to cherish more with Willis’ very unfortunate recently disclosed brain condition). Ian Holm as the mentor priest figure is also all kinds of fun, and I’ve already mentioned Oldman gleefully devouring the scenery. Jovovich, despite the silly orange hair dye, makes for some great sequences we’ll get to…and, well, then we get to Chris Tucker as future radio presenter Ruby Rhod. It’s a…divisive performance, and while I don’t mind his initial appearance, which revels in his high-pitched ego, I’ll admit that having him screech through most of the action sequences in the later act make for the film’s much weaker moments.
Still, we’re also treated around that time to probably my favorite moment—when we have an opera performance that eventually segues into a crazy techno hybrid with vocals that only a few have come close to matching, all synced to Milla kicking ass in outer space. Can you think of one film with something similar to that? That’s right, you can’t.
It’s not a film that you can pretend is exactly deep in themes—Besson supposedly wrote the treatment as a teenager, and, well, some parts kind of show (though the film does take a more cynical view of an environmentally ravaged and corporate-bent future Earth that resonates). Still, there’s more that gives it a distinct film—I do also enjoy Eric Serra’s soundtrack, which like in Leon and GoldenEye has that slightly discordant electronic feel that blends together all kinds of styles, be they orchestral or Middle Eastern even.
Flawed it may be in parts, Fifth Element is still a fun and memorable if nothing else ride for me—though it was probably the peak for some of the players involved here. Besson went on to produce so-so action films like Transporter and eventually tried to top this one with the more recent Valerian film—which, while visually spectacular, had the slight problem of utterly uninteresting leads and a meandering story. See above for how fun and charismatic main actors are a critical component for an enjoyable silliness fest. Jovovich went on to star mainly in the Resident Evil series, which seemed to relish in one-upping themselves in how unwatchable they were. And we might just touch on those in more detail later too.
Still, for that combination of Hollywood spectacle and French quirkiness, we’ve still got this one—with so much to pick apart, it’s no wonder it still gets bought up 25 years later. But then again, as the line goes, it’s not time that’s important…
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