THE FIFTH ELEMENT

(Redirected from The Divine Language)

'''The Fifth Element''' is a 1997 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 prophesied 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 Earth. Mangalores, slow-witted warrior mercenary aliens hired by corporate tyrant Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Oldman), are given the task to thwart Korben's efforts.
Although written and performed in the American English language and set in a futuristic New York City, the film was a British/French co-production. 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 through 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.

Contents

Synopsis

Production

Influence

Script

Minor roles and cameo appearances

Cultural references

The Divine Language

Soundtrack

Track listing

Reception

Spin-offs

Trivia

References

External links

Synopsis

Every five millennia, when three planets are in eclipse, evil is embodied and attempts to destroy all life. The weapon used 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 stone prisms. The fifth element is 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.
In 1914, the Mondoshawan guardians came to Earth to reclaim the element stones, explaining that they were no longer safe there, as war (World War I) was soon to begin. Three hundred years later, when the Ultimate Evil forms again, a Federated Army battleship unknowingly arrives at its location. The ship's commander is ordered by Federal President Lindberg to fire on it, but the Evil only grows larger with each attack, until it engulfs the entire ship.
The Mondoshawan attempt to bring the element stones back to Earth, but a powerful weapons manufacturer named Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg is employed by the Ultimate Evil (who takes on the alias Mr. Shadow) 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 planet, 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 language, she escapes the laboratory and 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 Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat. 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 an assault rifle, 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 Mondoshawan, they reactivate Korben's status and send him to retrieve the stones. In order to transport him to Fhloston inconspicuously, the government rigs a contest in which the winner receives tickets for a cruise to Fhloston, which Korben wins. In one of the film's most humorous scenes, General Munro comes to brief Korben on the mission; when Leeloo and Cornelius come to take Korben's tickets (after hearing about him winning on the radio), Korben hides Munro and his aides in his refrigerator. The police (having been tipped off by Zorg to an alleged uranium smuggling) arrive and Korben hides Leeloo in his shower and Cornelius in his plastic encasing bed. After the police leave (as Leeloo planted Korben's cab number on another door), Cornelius knocks out Korben with his Medal of Honor trophy and steals the tickets.
At JFK International Airport, his novice, David (Charlie Creed-Miles), tries to board the plane with Leeloo. Korben arrives as they are checking in, and he 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. Two shape-shifting Mangalores attempt to board the plane, but are sent away by the check-in attendant. Zorg's assistant, Right Arm, also poses as Korben, but is refused entry to the flight. He calls Zorg to report the situation, who remotely triggers an explosive in the phone booth, killing Right Arm, when he learns of his assistant's failure.
The trio arrives on Fhloston. Cornelius is arrested by the hotel security; Korben goes to his luxury suite and receives an abusive phone call from his mother (as he did not take her on the trip); and Leeloo awaits the Diva to give her the stones. In a sequence of rapid cross-cutting, Diva Plavalaguna begins her operatic performance in the theater aboard the cruise ship, while Leeloo engages in a gun fight and martial arts combat with Mangalores in the Diva's suite. The Diva's performance ends abruptly when she is killed by Mangalores, who then attempt to take control of the ship after Leeloo attacks them. President Lindberg and General Munro listen to the chaos on Ruby's radio program. As the crowd flees the theater, Zorg arrives. He intends to seize the stones; he confronts Leeloo and takes a wooden chest he believes contains the stones. He then shoots at her as she hides in the ventilation system, 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 (the Diva's abdomen), Korben finally defeats the Mangalores simply by killing their leader. Immediately following this conflict, the protagonists find Zorg's bomb, and both the crew and the passengers begin to evacuate the ship. Zorg returns while the evacuation is under way; he deactivates his bomb with only seconds to spare, but is killed in an explosion from another bomb, detonated by a surviving Mangalore. Korben, Leeloo, Cornelius, and Ruby escape with seconds to spare in Zorg's fighter ship.
As President Lindberg and his staff celebrate the apparent 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 less than two hours to prepare the weapon, the operation of which he does not yet understand.
As Korben, Leeloo, Cornelius, David, 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 minutes until impact, the protagonists arrive on Earth and begin to prepare the weapon. They place the stones around Leeloo, then David discovers that they must 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 match in Korben'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 that some things are worth saving, such as love. He finally tells her that he loves her, they kiss passionately, and their kiss triggers the stones to fire the weapon. The Divine Light is released 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.
In the end the President and his staff arrive at the laboratory where Leeloo was regenerated. Korben and Leeloo are making love in a "reactor" (the regeneration chamber), and the president answers an abusive phone call from Korben's mother.

Production

Influence

Some of the elements of the story of ''The Fifth Element'' are reminiscent of the ''Harry Canyon'' segment in the 1981 animated film ''Heavy Metal''. Both stories feature 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 involving an evil entity.
Additionally, ''The Fifth Element'' shares narrative elements with the French space opera comic book series '', which takes place in a highly-stylized future metropolis and features a 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.
Several scenes pay homage to Fritz Lang's ''Metropolis''. When the police attempt to arrest Leeloo after she has crash-landed in Dallas' taxicab, they twice use the expression "thank you for your cooperation", a line directly from Paul Verhoeven's Robocop. Also, the film is often compared to, and credited alongside, ''Blade Runner'', possibly drawing some influences from the film.

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 Fifth Element, returned to illustrating ''The Circles of Power'', the fifteenth volume in the 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.
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''. Actor Luke Perry makes a cameo appearance as an artist for Professor Pacoli in the film's prologue. President Lindberg is played by Tom Lister, Jr., while General Munro is played by Brion James, who played Leon the replicant in the film ''Blade Runner''. Zorg's assistant Right Arm is played by Adrian Thaws, who is better known as British musical artist Tricky.
General Staedert is played by John Neville who is better known for playing Baron Munchausen in Terry Gilliam's 1988 ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' and "the Well-Manicured Man" on ''The X-Files''.
The man who attempts to rob Korben on his doorstep is played by Mathieu Kassovitz, a French film director and actor known for his role in ''Amelie'', 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. French-American fashion model Sybil Buck plays Zorg's secretary.
The Diva Plavalaguna is played by Maïwenn Le Besco.
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 soldier in the film adaptation 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 Sho Fumimura and Ryoichi Ikegami.
Zorg paraphrases Friedrich Nietzsche when he says "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Later in the film, Zorg detonates a bomb within a telephone booth at the New York Spaceport after ending his conversation with his assistant, an homage to the original James Bond novel ''Casino Royale''. Additionally, there are numerous references to the ''Star Wars'' films. For instance, the Federated Army battleships are similar in design to the Imperial Star Destroyers and Major Iceborg has a similar hairstyle to Princess Leia Organa.
The diva's name, Plavalaguna, means "blue lagoon" in several Slavic languages. ''Return to the Blue Lagoon'' was Milla Jovovich's second starring role as an actress.
Clever devices are used to mock certain aspects of modern culture. Korben Dallas' cigarettes are colored in such a way to imply that most of the cigarette is a filter, with only a small part actually smokable. Korben, in the course of meeting Leeloo, goes from 5 points on his license to 1 point on his license. This is inverted from the point system used in the US and UK, in which points are added, not subtracted for violations, but is in accordance with the point system used in France, where a fresh driving license has 12 points. There is also a type of national ID card in the film called a multipass, which is, evidently, easily forgeable. Additionally, the word "green" is used in the film as slang for "cool". In one scene, two police officers get their lunch from McDonald's and a crushed bottle of Coca-Cola can be seen in Korben's apartment.

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 Jovovich 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, "Leeloominaï" means "precious stones", and the latter "Ekbat De Sebat" is an honorific that is never defined. No meaning is given for "Lekatariba" or "Lamina-Tchaï". "Leeloominaï" is the only word in her name that appears in Luc Besson's published dictionary. Other spellings of her name include "Leeloo mi naï", and "Leeloo Minai Lekatariba Lamin-atchai Ekbat Desebat", with "Lekarariba" being wrongly mistaken as the pronunciation of her "third" name. No formal declaration of the truth behind the spelling of Leeloo's name has ever come forth from Besson, but a post-production promotional poster of Leeloo leaping from a building is subtitled "Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat".
The term "Senno Ekto Gamat" used by Leeloo, after Korben Dallas kisses her means, "never without my permission".

Soundtrack

Much of the film's score, composed by Éric 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 pop style. This striking change is cross-cut with scenes of Leeloo's fight with the Mangalores 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 Gaetano Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' Act III, Scene I, "Il dolce suono" 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 claimed that 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.

Track listing

# "Little Light of Love", performed by RXRA
# "Mondoshawan"
# "Timecrash"
# "Korben Dallas"
# "Koolen"
# "Akta"
# "Leeloo"
# "Five Millenia Later"
# "Plavalaguna"
# "Ruby Rap"
# "Heat"
# "Badaboom"
# "Mangalores"
# "Lucia Di Lammermoor", performed by Inva Mulla Tchako and the London Symphony Orchestra
# "The Diva Dance", performed by Inva Mulla Tchako
# "Leeloominai"
# "A Bomb In The Hotel"
# "Mina Hinoo"
# "No Cash No Trash"
# "Radiowaves"
# "Human Nature"
# "Pictures Of War"
# "Lakta Ligunai"
# "Protect Life"
# "Little Light Of Love (End Titles Version)", performed by RXRA
# "Aknot! Wot?"

Reception

''The Fifth Element'' was selected as the opening film for the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. Its worldwide box office gross was more than $260 million USD, more than three times its budget of $80 million USD. Notably, 76% of the receipts for ''The Fifth Element'' were from markets outside of the United States.^[1]
''The Fifth Element'' was nominated for an Academy Award in 1998 in the Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing category, and won the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects. It was nominated for seven César awards and won three for Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design.

Spin-offs

A game adaption based on the movie was also created by Activision for the PlayStation game console and PC. It was generally met with bad reviews and considered a failure.^{[2] [3]}

Trivia

★ The hero (Bruce Willis) and the chief villain (Gary Oldman) never meet or communicate in any way.

★ All of the license plates in the film contain the phrase "New York: The Fuck You State."

★ The first Blu-ray disc release of the film was widely criticized as having poor picture quality (barely on par with standard definition DVD); Sony subsequently made a remastered Blu-ray version available, released on July 17, 2007. ^[4]

★ This is the second movie to feature both Tiny Lister Jr. and Chris Tucker, the first movie being ''Friday''.

★ At Korben's apartment near the auto-bed, a little flag of the Brazilian football (soccer) team with 4 stars on it can be seen. This is because the film came out in 1997 before Brazil won its last World Cup in 2002.

★ The Balitmore, Maryland grindcore band Lilu Dallas [1] takes its name from the film.

References

1. Box Office Mojo
2. The Fifth Element for PS at Gamespot
3. IGN: The Fifth Element Review
4. http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwocentsa137.html#fra

External links

★

★ Sculptor Keith Short Images of set pieces sculpted for The Fifth Element

★ Digital Designs |Image of Fhloston Paradise Luxury Liner

★ Official Ruby Rhod Website |Official Ruby Rhod Website

★ http://home.case.edu/~agw4/diva/framer.htm

★ Leeloo et Plavalaguna Montage from the film set to The Diva's performance

★ Movie stills