I'm just here to share my love for this film. I'm a big movie fan. I've been watching the Fifth Element since high school, and I've only grown to appreciate it more and more as a film as I get older.
It's so full of life, creativity, color, humor, and themes we can all relate to (purpose, love, loss, etc).
This is peek Bruce Willis, and the movie is filled with other exceptional actors including Gary Oldman and Ian Holm. Milla Jovovich is extremely entertaining to watch as a sort fish-out-of-water, and I know Chris Tucker's character here isn't for everyone but in my opinion it's right on-brand for the film. Cracks me up every time for decades.
Mostly the effects have aged really well. That's generally thanks to heavy use of practical effects, as this article highlights.
I often get sad that this is becoming a lost art. Great filmmakers with big budgets are still doing this type of practical effects work (Nolan [Interstellar], Villeneuve [Dune]), but I think eventually it will be lost in time.
Agreed -- it's a wonderful film, and deserves a special place right up there with Star Wars and Harryhausen for its practical effects.
While the article mentions Moebius, I think this level of praise still merits an extra Incal callout, even if it just serves as a recommendation to those who want more of this stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incal
I don't believe it to be honest; model making and painting remains a popular hobby for millions of people, the only question is whether filmmakers will want to use it.
And recently, especially in e.g. Star Wars franchise entries, they have gone towards using models / sets again instead of just using CGI for everything.
But I wonder at what point digital effects become 'good enough' in some sense that they never look aged beyond the containing film. At some point surely there's no more perceptible 'resolution' to be had.
In practice digital effects haven’t approached being convincing the way practical effects do. In many cases, especially when used liberally, digital effects still clock as amazing digital effects rather than reality. It can be enjoyable but I don’t see what would move forward other than recognizing cgi isnt the best solution for everything.
I was flipping channels in a hotel and I assume the Peter Jackson hobbit/Lord of the Rings were on. The scene I watched was some sort of interior castle scene and it looked really bad. I felt like it was very flat and cardboardy and filmed on VHS.
Excellent article. And a great opportunity to share one of my favorite scifi worldbuilding artifacts: the 4K matte painting used for the brief view of Manhattan during the take-off sequence:
The overall vision for the city is implicit but wildly creative: sea levels have dropped significantly, with the architecture of the city spreading across the newly-exposed land and leaving original structures like the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan's skyscrapers, and the Statue of Liberty towering above the landscape. There are also oodles of tiny details scattered throughout the image -- you can pore over it for a good 10 minutes and still find more to appreciate. Very cool of Digital Domain to share it originally.
Fifth Element is pretty much Besson doing Valerian before he was able to get funding for Valerian, so we kinda did get a spiritual sequel of sorts.
Unfortunately, while I've grown to like the Valerian movie, when compared to Fifth Element it would seem that Besson should have been given a far tighter budget for Valerian rather than the apparent near free reign he got.
I desperately wanted to like Valerian since I love Fifth Element, while visually striking the story line was pretty meh and OMG the casting was horrible. I think I could casually enjoy it even with the bad story if they had done better job casting.
I love this movie so much it's _unreal_. What an experience, every single time.
And each time I see an article like this, I simply marvel at the immense love for art and life it has. What an incredibly talented crew, what product of mastery and care.
Valerian missed the mark; I'm sure it's got great designs (although I also believe it's mostly CGI), but the story of the movie is disjointed (which is a risk when trying to merge multiple storylines into one) and the actors are lifeless.
I've grown to like Valerian over rewatches, but unfortunately it suffers from Besson being a massive Valerian fanboy and trying to stuff everything he possibly could into it... I think he'd have done far better if he'd gotten a more limited budget, or had to produce three of them for the cost of the one he did...
The Fifth Element and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets are widely considered to share a thematic and stylistic universe, with similar aesthetic influences. There are shared elements (ha!) and aesthetics, with Valerian even featuring a shop called "Korbens" as an easter egg to The Fifth Element.
Unfortunately the movie doesn't do it for me, the 90s were a better time.
Once CGI became good storytelling and creativity took a backseat in Hollywood.
It was a fun film, but Chris Tucker broke the pacing too many times for a general audience. Even now on rottentomatoes his role still distracts focus from the character arcs.
I think the film would have been better (though perhaps less successful) if Besson had toned down the occasionally exaggerated tomfoolery, like Chris Tucker's character, or the spaceship Evil (the orb described in the article) which felt almost like a SciFi parody taken out of the movie Spaceballs.
The pacing, the great costumes and set design by Moebius, the actors Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich, and the unusual ideas (like the alien opera singer) were all more than enough to carry the movie.
On the cover it's a story about the failed production of Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune script but the deeper story was the aggregation of an unbelievably talented pool of visual artists including Jean "Moebius" Giraud (mentioned as central artist in 5th element), H.R. Giger, Chris Foss, Salvador Dali, & Dan O'Bannon.
That group would go on to centrally influence the visual style of a huge body of science fiction work including Alien, Blade Runner, Total Recall, Star Wars, The Matrix, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc etc.
The art and creativity on display in the film is absolutely sonic.
The parent post didn't say "unauthorized." Plenty of scams use celebrities' names/reputations and compensate then for it. See: just about every pump-and-dump cryptocoin.
I have very vivid memories of watching it for the first time in the cinema (original run). I'm pretty sure I still have the ticket.
I was spending winter break in the mountains, with some friends, completely snowed in. I bought the soundtrack too (on a cassette tape).
Possibly the last decent movie of his.
I really like how well the movie aged. I recently watched it with my wife, who had never seen it, and she was hooked. Most of the effects hold up very well today and the movie is just fun.
That image is only on screen for like 2 seconds, but it tells a whole story and really pulled me into the film. The first half you're deep in the city, and then finally when you get to see it from afar, it seems like a whole real city instead of the few locales they shot. Also makes it feel like a continuity of our future instead of some random alien drama.
Imgur might be vastly underselling the richness of the image, depending on your browser/device. Definitely check out the full 4K version if you're only seeing a thumbnail on that page:
I'm just here to share my love for this film. I'm a big movie fan. I've been watching the Fifth Element since high school, and I've only grown to appreciate it more and more as a film as I get older.
It's so full of life, creativity, color, humor, and themes we can all relate to (purpose, love, loss, etc).
This is peek Bruce Willis, and the movie is filled with other exceptional actors including Gary Oldman and Ian Holm. Milla Jovovich is extremely entertaining to watch as a sort fish-out-of-water, and I know Chris Tucker's character here isn't for everyone but in my opinion it's right on-brand for the film. Cracks me up every time for decades.
Mostly the effects have aged really well. That's generally thanks to heavy use of practical effects, as this article highlights.
I often get sad that this is becoming a lost art. Great filmmakers with big budgets are still doing this type of practical effects work (Nolan [Interstellar], Villeneuve [Dune]), but I think eventually it will be lost in time.
Agreed -- it's a wonderful film, and deserves a special place right up there with Star Wars and Harryhausen for its practical effects.
While the article mentions Moebius, I think this level of praise still merits an extra Incal callout, even if it just serves as a recommendation to those who want more of this stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incal
I cannot imagine anyone but Chris Tucker playing Ruby Rhod. He's one of the best parts of the film.
I got the 4K BD disk to watch with my kids a couple months ago and it has aged really well, particularly the special effects.
It's a wonderful movie, definitely one of my favorites.
> but I think eventually it will be lost in time.
I don't believe it to be honest; model making and painting remains a popular hobby for millions of people, the only question is whether filmmakers will want to use it.
And recently, especially in e.g. Star Wars franchise entries, they have gone towards using models / sets again instead of just using CGI for everything.
But I wonder at what point digital effects become 'good enough' in some sense that they never look aged beyond the containing film. At some point surely there's no more perceptible 'resolution' to be had.
In practice digital effects haven’t approached being convincing the way practical effects do. In many cases, especially when used liberally, digital effects still clock as amazing digital effects rather than reality. It can be enjoyable but I don’t see what would move forward other than recognizing cgi isnt the best solution for everything.
I was flipping channels in a hotel and I assume the Peter Jackson hobbit/Lord of the Rings were on. The scene I watched was some sort of interior castle scene and it looked really bad. I felt like it was very flat and cardboardy and filmed on VHS.
The cast is just perfect IMHO. Super green! ;
Also one of my all time favorites.
Excellent article. And a great opportunity to share one of my favorite scifi worldbuilding artifacts: the 4K matte painting used for the brief view of Manhattan during the take-off sequence:
http://web.archive.org/web/20161007133354if_/http://digitald...
The overall vision for the city is implicit but wildly creative: sea levels have dropped significantly, with the architecture of the city spreading across the newly-exposed land and leaving original structures like the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan's skyscrapers, and the Statue of Liberty towering above the landscape. There are also oodles of tiny details scattered throughout the image -- you can pore over it for a good 10 minutes and still find more to appreciate. Very cool of Digital Domain to share it originally.
Went to add this to my rotation wallpaper collection, only to realize it's already there.
What I like most about the Fifth Element is that they didn't milk it through a bunch of sequels.
I think this one deserved at least one sequel.
Speaking of sequels, who in the star wars universe will get their own show next? Based on who is left, i put my money on Exogorth.
Fifth Element is pretty much Besson doing Valerian before he was able to get funding for Valerian, so we kinda did get a spiritual sequel of sorts.
Unfortunately, while I've grown to like the Valerian movie, when compared to Fifth Element it would seem that Besson should have been given a far tighter budget for Valerian rather than the apparent near free reign he got.
For Valerian he should have been better at casting people that had chemistry and felt real
I desperately wanted to like Valerian since I love Fifth Element, while visually striking the story line was pretty meh and OMG the casting was horrible. I think I could casually enjoy it even with the bad story if they had done better job casting.
Very true, but I can't help but want a sequel haha. Maybe that desire proves your point... Let our imagination do the rest
Yet!
I love this movie so much it's _unreal_. What an experience, every single time.
And each time I see an article like this, I simply marvel at the immense love for art and life it has. What an incredibly talented crew, what product of mastery and care.
He continued with Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
The Fifth Element has similar cinematic feeling as the first Blade Runner.
And now it is clear. There is the same person behind it :)
Valerian missed the mark; I'm sure it's got great designs (although I also believe it's mostly CGI), but the story of the movie is disjointed (which is a risk when trying to merge multiple storylines into one) and the actors are lifeless.
I really liked Valerian. The story was fine and I expected Cara to be crap but she was actually fine.
I did however very much hated Dane DeHaan's annoying voice.
I've grown to like Valerian over rewatches, but unfortunately it suffers from Besson being a massive Valerian fanboy and trying to stuff everything he possibly could into it... I think he'd have done far better if he'd gotten a more limited budget, or had to produce three of them for the cost of the one he did...
The Fifth Element and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets are widely considered to share a thematic and stylistic universe, with similar aesthetic influences. There are shared elements (ha!) and aesthetics, with Valerian even featuring a shop called "Korbens" as an easter egg to The Fifth Element.
Unfortunately the movie doesn't do it for me, the 90s were a better time.
Once CGI became good storytelling and creativity took a backseat in Hollywood.
Perfect CGI and no-grain 4K (?) flattened the feeling.
Valerian was fun, but I really don't think it held together. Great set piece scenes though.
waterworld
Adam Savage covered the Mondoshawan props on his channel last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf5dPrmBvwE
It was a fun film, but Chris Tucker broke the pacing too many times for a general audience. Even now on rottentomatoes his role still distracts focus from the character arcs.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fifth_element
Was a cult classic for sure, but nowhere near Blade Runner as a film. =3
I think the film would have been better (though perhaps less successful) if Besson had toned down the occasionally exaggerated tomfoolery, like Chris Tucker's character, or the spaceship Evil (the orb described in the article) which felt almost like a SciFi parody taken out of the movie Spaceballs.
The pacing, the great costumes and set design by Moebius, the actors Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich, and the unusual ideas (like the alien opera singer) were all more than enough to carry the movie.
If you enjoyed the Fifth Element absolutely watch Jodorowsky's Dune
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/
On the cover it's a story about the failed production of Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune script but the deeper story was the aggregation of an unbelievably talented pool of visual artists including Jean "Moebius" Giraud (mentioned as central artist in 5th element), H.R. Giger, Chris Foss, Salvador Dali, & Dan O'Bannon.
That group would go on to centrally influence the visual style of a huge body of science fiction work including Alien, Blade Runner, Total Recall, Star Wars, The Matrix, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc etc.
The art and creativity on display in the film is absolutely sonic.
Kind of like the original PayPal mafia!
I was in Paris years ago and took these photos of the actual cab models that were on display. Enjoy https://imgur.com/a/txIHpJT
Off topic but Milla Jovovich just released an AI memory called mempalace:
https://github.com/milla-jovovich/mempalace
There is zero history of her programming. This is a scam, using her name.
The Wikipedia article about her https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milla_Jovovich links to https://www.millaj.com/ which links to her Instagram http://instagram.com/millajovovich/ where the bio reads:
> Mother/Actress/Architect of MemPalace free and open source on GitHub
And the linktree from the Instagram profile links to https://github.com/milla-jovovich/mempalace
The parent post didn't say "unauthorized." Plenty of scams use celebrities' names/reputations and compensate then for it. See: just about every pump-and-dump cryptocoin.
This is what you get combining shameless bunch of famous B-rated movie star, crypto dudes and Automatic programming hype (Claude in contibs)
https://github.com/milla-jovovich/mempalace/graphs/contribut...
But it is so dumb that it doesn't even add to the drift towards greater Idiocracy clock values.
I’ve watched Milla on social media discussing this project, she is working with a developer who is a friend of hers to have it go forward.
That is a very valid concern, but in this case she is actually "involved":
https://xcancel.com/BrianRoemmele/status/2041397710113435659...
her partner "engineered" it while she "architected", whatever that means in this particular case
It means she came up with the idea and partnered with someone to build the code. Pretty simple to understand.
Interesting to see programming and acting worlds cross-pollinate.
nah, a crypto grifter released one with cooked benchmarks
I have very vivid memories of watching it for the first time in the cinema (original run). I'm pretty sure I still have the ticket. I was spending winter break in the mountains, with some friends, completely snowed in. I bought the soundtrack too (on a cassette tape). Possibly the last decent movie of his.
LEELOO DALLAS MULTIPASS
https://youtu.be/RdqiaNsKR2E
I really like how well the movie aged. I recently watched it with my wife, who had never seen it, and she was hooked. Most of the effects hold up very well today and the movie is just fun.
The article is missing one of the best futurescape shots in the whole movie!
http://i.imgur.com/6W5InkH.jpg
That image is only on screen for like 2 seconds, but it tells a whole story and really pulled me into the film. The first half you're deep in the city, and then finally when you get to see it from afar, it seems like a whole real city instead of the few locales they shot. Also makes it feel like a continuity of our future instead of some random alien drama.
My post! :)
Imgur might be vastly underselling the richness of the image, depending on your browser/device. Definitely check out the full 4K version if you're only seeing a thumbnail on that page:
http://web.archive.org/web/20161007133354if_/http://digitald...
Imgur is blocked in the UK, and last I checked blocked connections from VPNs too.
Which scene are you referring to?
Works in Opera with its built-in VPN.
Try this one?
http://www.vfxhq.com/1997/stills/fifth/welcome.jpg
It's the wide shot of NYC after they leave the spaceport.
That's amazing, you always see flooded cities in the future this is out of the box thinking.
I have fond memories of the Fifth Element, as one of my first PG-13 movies at the cinema that I was allowed to see as a 9-10 year old.
Looking back, the whole story gives a different futuristic feel to the usual gloomy polluted dystopian earths, and feels a bit, "near-future".
Seeing hover cars getting drive through McDonalds will forever be a future hope for me (my inner 10 year old self)
(2019)
(1997)
Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (1997) (2019)