The Fifth Element

 I feel like I have seen the Fifth Element many times, but I also feel like I have never seen it. When the
movie was beginning, I was actually confused because I do not remember it at all. Once class ended, I texted my friend (who loves the movie) that I realized the only thing I remember from the movie was Chris Tucker. Tucker played Ruby Rhod, a flamboyant character in both his outfits and actions. Now looking back, I only Tucker in the animal print bodysuit with the weird hair dancing and prancing around the spacecraft with an orange hair girl and Bruce Willis. So, it felt like I was watching the movie for the first time. 

Another moment in the movie that I remember is the scene with the alien opera singer. The diva was named Plavalaguna and was played y Inva Mula, an Albanian soprano. The scene and the song in it are famous for being hard to recreate. When you look up the scene, the articles that pop up are about how "impossible" it is to sing and the few opera singers who are able to recreate it. I remembered the scene, but it had been a while since I had seen it. It was deja vu seeing it again. 

The main thing that points out to me is the bizarre fashion showcased in the movie. The outfits in the movie were created by famed fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier. I read an article about the designer and the way it compares to other sci-fi movies. The article, written by Dazed Digital, wrote that "the costumes are colorful, exciting, and a world away from the grim rain-soaked worlds of predecessors like Blade Runner (1982)". This is true, when you look back on the outfits in the previous sci-fi movies, not a lot of them are as colorful and bright as The Fifth Element. To me, this makes the movie very memorable. I mean when I first thought of the movie, I remember Chris Tucker's character and his unique fashion and looks throughout the movie. I think of the first things people think about when hearing The Fifth Element are the fashion and appearances of the characters in the film.

The movie was directed by Luc Besson, who directed other movies like Leon, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and Lucy. His most famous movies are sci-fi, except for Leon because it is considered a drama. He was born in Paris, France. He was most known for being a huge director during the Cinema du look movement of the 1980s and 1990s. 

He and other directors were known as the directors of the "look". They were known to favor style over substance. The movement had many themes that were common in the movies. These include doomed love affairs, young people more affiliated to peer groups than families, a cynical view of the police, and the use of scenes in the Paris Metro to symbolize an alternative and underground society. They are also a mix of high and pop culture in these movies. This can be seen in the scene with the diva opera singer in the Fifth Element. The movies had young, alienated characters centered in the movie, which could describe Leeloo in the movie. 

These themes all related to the youth of France during the residency of French president Francois Mitterrand. He was president from 1981 to 1995, which is the longest in the country's history. Now the history of the president is a whole other thing, but this era of France played a huge part in this cinematic movement and has created many movies that are well-known and loved by many. 

I forgot to write notes for the movie, but I did extensive research on the movie to make up for it :)