Yes.

Yes.

Yes. It's a great film, actually very faithful to the well-documented story, only with a kind of agnostic slant. Milla is also very good here. The film bombed not because of any shortcoming, but because every English-language film ever made on this subject has always bombed (even the play by GBS) because it attacks the Anglo-Saxon pride.

And, yes, I'm French. And yes, Jerry Lewis is a genius, and, yes, Chris Tucker can do no harm.

Yes.

And, yes, you are obviously related to Besson. That or you praise anything French. :)

Ruby Rhod is supposed to be an annoying, pain in the ass character.

Selfish, self centered, used to getting things his way, but when the shit hits the fan he falls apart.

This Just In: The sky is blue

I know Rhod was supposed to be an annoying character. I still stand by my statement.

Chris Tucker is an amazing, unstoppable motor-mouth. His character gives the film a good deal of its dynamic, forward, inescapable comedic thrust. He is an essential "element" of the action. He is the exact reverse of all the high ideals being bandied about by the more sedate characters. And he gets the last word. Well, almost. He certainly gets a great exit anyway.

For all those who can't stand Tucker in 5th Element, I know many people who think that he makes the movie great instead of just good. Like it or not, he's a major factor in why many non-sci-fi people like this movie.

I didn't know that EVERY English-language attempt at Joan of Arc was a flop. Wasn't The Messenger sort of a hit overseas, where Luc Besson is more of a draw?

FWIW, how did 5th Element do once you factor in overseas sales? I heard it did about triple its American take.

:thumbsup:i thought tucker was great in the 5th element.

There weren't that many. There was "Joan the Woman" by Cecil B. DeMille, which tried to use the story to bolster British and American morale during World War I. In it, Joan was in love with a British soldier, no less. Well, that didn't go down very well. There was the Victor Fleming-Ingrid Bergman 1948 film "Joan of Arc" (based on the Maxwell Anderson play), which went down in flames and was horribly cut down to size after Bergman absconded to Italy with Roberto Rossellini and the American public thought: "How dare she pose as a saint? The harlot!" (This one has just been restored to DVD and it's a masterpiece.) Then there was the Otto Preminger - Jean Seberg film based on George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" which popular opinion deemed "just weird".

The European versions by Dreyer, Rossellini and many others fared much better generally. And it has to do with the sense of embarrassment English-speaking people feel at being cast as the villains of the piece, despite every attempt of the scriptwriters to attenuate the blow and distantiate the audience from the story.

"The Messenger" did boffo business in Quebec, France and all of Europe (even did OK business in England where Shakespeare's plays denounce Joan as a fake). In Toronto (Ontario), I saw it in the dank basement room of a very ratty downtown googleplex where the screen was torn and stained and hobos took refuge from the cold. "The Fifth Element" is permanently featured in repertory cinemas all over the world. And it was deemed worthy of a Superbit Edition DVD...

Imagine how much good could have been actualized if Besson had directed:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Both films are comedies about the end of the world and both films have the same comedic intensity tinged with high ideals.

Resident Evil was also deemed good enough for a superbit... ;)

Just messing, I enjoy both Resident Evil and The Fifth Element.

Well, it does feature prominently Milla Jovovich's panties.

So true. It also does have a flash or two of her tits, and that needs to be seen in Superbit.

This is the film snob version of punk3d.

Didn't The Messenger also make Superbit?

Quite possibly the only of your posts that I can wholly agree with :lol:.

Yeah, this film was pretty big overseas. Only 63 million stateside, but 200 million in foreign markets, and of course huge in france.

I was always hoping to see Besson do the sequel, Mr Shadow. As I recall, 5th Element is basically the first half of his whole story. I doubt that'll ever be made (doesn't help that Milla is his ex-wife). I'd be happy if he'd just make another movie. though.

Speaking of Mr. Shadow.

I remember a review somewhere where the guy bitched about how Mr. Shadow *CALLED* Zorg on the phone. I thought it was funny that this supreme evil in the universe has to make a phone call to contact a human on Earth.

Plus i find the "Ultimate evil has telepathy" to be very tired and cliche.


Also 5th Element is the only movie I can recall where the hero of the film (Korben) never meets the villan (Zorg).

I talked to Luc Besson tonight and he said...
 

... "Plaaay the best soooong in the world... or I'll eat your souls" (snort)

Ha, I loved that. it was especially funny because they are in the same shot together, Bruce runs off frame then Zorg just shows up right after.

Great stuff.

Zorg is a "man alone", an egotist. A confrontation with the Bruce Willis character would have given him more dignity than he deserves. He acts through henchmen and when they fail, he moves in but blunders.

A video clerk once described "The Fifth Element" to me this way: Its Preston Sturges meets Tex Avery. Sturges was the director-scripwriter responsible for some of Hollywood's most memorable and sophisticated screwball comedies (e.g.: "Sullivan's Travels") while Tex Avery created the manic Warner Brothers cartoons of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. I think it's a good comparison.

You guys are kooky. :)