The Fifth Element 1997 is the most tragic film in Luc Besson's career
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by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
It is not a spoiler in 2025 that the message of Luc Besson's 1997 film The Fifth Element is "Love". The fifth element itself ( a revelation in the end of the film ) appears to be Love. And the thesis is that Love is the thing that can defeat the evil in the world. But looking at the film and the behind the scenes drama around it, you can say that Besson didn't really mean love in its purest sense. But he was instead preaching a Bonobo Philosophy. Where "love" or in modern language sex, is used to deescalate conflict. Bonobos are known to fuck each other instead of fighting with each other, making themselves more peaceful. Looking at how horny The Fifth Element ( and Luc Besson ) is, the Bonobo philosophy theory sounds to be a much more plausible reading of the film. Making it very tragic indeed. ↩ Reply
I was self-boycotting this film for quite some time, because I learned about some drama that happened behind the scenes, which made me very angry at Besson. And angry at this film in particular. But for this review I decided to watch it once again. And I cried twice. I obviously cried at the finale where Besson is trying so hard to present "Love" as the solution for all the evils in the world. Knowing how tragic this is, when compared to what happened behind the scenes, broke me to tears. And then I cried in the middle of it, when Diva Plavalaguna performed her song. ↩ Reply
Diva Plavalaguna was played in this film by Maïwenn Le Besco, Luc Besson's wife at the time. She was ( as she says ) the inspiration for another movie about Love that Besson did called Leon: The Professional. Besson met Maïwenn when she was 12 and married her when she was 15. They had their first kid when she was 16. And you may think that this is all illegal and utterly insane, well I got to tell you another story then. ↩ Reply
When I was about 16 there was a girl in my surrounding, which was about a year or so younger than me. She met a guy who was in his 20s and they started dating. For us kids it didn't feel weird. What felt weird, was all of the attention from the adults when this girl got pregnant. There were lawsuits and the government wanted to take the baby. And other trauma that was absolutely insane. We knew ( and to this day I don't see it in any other light ) that this girl was in love with this dude. And they survived through the lawsuits and through the government bullshit. She did all that necessary from her to save her baby and save this motherfucker. She even married him. And they even had a second baby a few years later. She succeeded at proving that in this particular case it was not abuse, but real love. And only because it was real love they pushed through that legal wall and won it. ↩ Reply
If Luc Besson didn't go to prison for Maïwenn Le Besco I've got to imagine that they went through something probably very similar. They had to fight for their right to remain together. This is some powerful stuff. If anything the relationship between Besson and Le Besco should have been the closest thing to the message of the film that there could be. ↩ Reply
When he did Leon ( the other movie about love ) he cast Le Besco in the film ( in a minor role ) to cement his point. And then in this movie, which is 100% supposed to be about love, he casts her again, in one of the most important roles in the film. Probably trying to cement a similar message with this casting choice. ↩ Reply
The love story between Leeloo ( Milla Jovovich ) and Korben Dallas ( Bruce Willis ) should have been a similar kind of pure thing as the relationship between Leon and Matilda. Yet Besson fucked it up big time. ↩ Reply
In 1997 ( the same year as when the movie got released ) Besson divorced Maïwenn Le Besco and married Milla Jovovich. Motherfucker! ↩ Reply
The beginning of the film establishes that there are 5 elements. Wind, water, earth and fire. And the fifth element, which is supposed to be this perfect man. Perfect being. The joke is, that this "perfect man" is in fact a girl, and this girl ( Leeloo ) is played by Jovovich. ↩ Reply
I think Maïwenn understood that for the large cinema audience, their love is not something that they think is most important thing on the planet. And casting a fresh face hot chick as "the perfect being" instead of herself, was probably a wise decision. And Besson even cast Maïwenn herself at quite an important role in the film. So there was probably not too much tension about this point. Still though, something about it from the beginning is bothering. ↩ Reply
And then comes the Opera scene. Maïwenn in her blue-alien makeup comes on stage and pretends to perform an Éric Serra opera composition with impossible vocal range. The scene is poetic and the film stops to admire her. Even giving us a closeup of Bruce Willis as he is tearing up from her performance. It is Besson showing the whole world how much he loves his woman behind the makeup. But then he cuts to Jovovich. I'm tearing up right now just from typing this very sentence. ↩ Reply
The second half of her performance is inter-cutting between Diva's singing and Leeloo's kicking ass. Ending in both of them being shot. In a way the scene is constructed to draw the attention of the audience to the fact that this Diva character and this Leeloo character are similar to some extent. From one point you can think that Besson is trying to say something along the lines of: This Diva for me is what this Leeloo is for Korben Dallas. As if the scene is a poetic way for Besson to tell the whole world how much he loves Le Besco. ↩ Reply
But what actually happens is he shows that he thinks for him both of them are the same. Both of them are his love, or something. Or even worse. Because Leeloo survives being shot and the Diva isn't, it is Besson showing the whole world that he is abandoning Le Besco. Abandoning his love, for some Milla Jovovich. Who he divorces only 2 years later anyway. What a fucking tragedy! ↩ Reply
Despite all this the film still marches on towards the ending where it is revealed that love is the fifth element and the thing that has the power to stop all the evils in the world. The film ignores Luc's own bullshit, in order to sound like it has something profound to teach people. ↩ Reply
From one side, maybe Luc Besson is right. Maybe he knows that he is a fucking asshole. And maybe he aspires to be one that can love for real. Maybe the film is his depressed, desperate reach for help. Maybe he wants to have love, but knows that he himself is too horny to fucking sustain it. ↩ Reply
On the other hand, you can read it differently. The whole film is one big soft-core-pornography-fest. You have the Leeloo character wearing only bandages that barely cover anything. You have the Chris Tucker character who is just a horny motherfucker fucking every single hot lady he can find. You even have Korben Dallas himself who literally rape-kisses Leeloo in one scene. The whole world looking at this "perfect being" doesn't feel some profound emotion. They don't feel love. From what it looks like, they all just get horny looking at her. Her being "perfect" is the same as saying that she is just really fucking hot. ↩ Reply
Maybe what Besson is trying to say that fucking ( as in sex ) is the fifth element. Maybe Besson is teaching us the Bonobo's way of life. Maybe Luc Besson is just horny motherfucker who is trying to argue with this film that being a horny motherfucker is good actually. Maybe his argument is something along the lines of: If people had more sex, people would have less war. ↩ Reply
I mean, looking at Bonobos he isn't wrong per say. It could actually be true. Who knows? But knowing how the personal life of Besson turned out. How he broke one family ( and he had a kid with Le Besco ) to pursue this new hot chick. How this new hot chick used him for a while and later dumped him. How he regrets the whole ordeal now... ↩ Reply
Besson was married 4 times. First with the actress playing Nikita in his film Nikita. She divorced him already after he started dating Le Besco. She probably found out about the two, and didn't want to be a part of it. But I doubt Besson really loved her. They don't even have a child. He probably thought she was just hot. ↩ Reply
With Le Besco though, he did have a child. And with Le Besco he does two films ( where he puts her into the films ). And those 2 films are about love. He marries her immediately after he divorces his first wife. It seems like with Le Besco Besson actually experiences true love for the first time in his life. ↩ Reply
In the documentary about the making of Leon, while Le Besco states that the film is about them, Besson burps out some unintelligible bullshit about how this super killer character needed a special girl to break through to his heart or something. In a way he says the same thing. He felt it. He really felt it at the time. They probably went through some nightmarish legal procedures to get the green-light from the government to continue their relationship. And only something as strong as real love could have pushed them through it. ↩ Reply
But then he fucks up. He finds this girl ( who is, by the way, the exact same age as Le Besco ) and his dick speaks for him for a while. The whole movie you can see his dick speaking. The whole movie is horny as hell. He wakes up a few times from his dick infused high. But that was probably not enough. He probably did too much harm already. Maybe he starts seeing Jovovich or something in secrecy. Maybe Maïwenn find out about them. They divorce. Besson marries Jovovich. And 2 years later, his cock stops giving him the signals. So he divorces her. Or she divorces him. That wasn't actual love. That was bullshit. Le Besco was love. But he fucked it up. And he can't do anything about it anymore. ↩ Reply
That is why Besson doesn't immediately marry again. He is looking for love again. Not for pussy. For love. Maïwenn is gone. I mean they probably still see each other, because they have a little girl together. But that is not a repairable situation. He only finds another chance at love again in 2004. This time he knows not to fuck it up. He marries again, this time with Virginie Besson-Silla. He looks at Maïwenn Le Besco and swears that he will never do that same mistake again. He will never abandon Virginie, no matter what. No matter how hot the actress will be. And he survives. He survives Lucy and Scarlett Johansson. He survives Valerian and Anna and Sasha Luss. ↩ Reply
Maybe in the end of the day the tragedy of The Fifth Element the tragedy of Le Besco was something that Besson needed to go through, to at least have a chance to cure himself somewhat from the curse of the pussy. ↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply
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Troler
c:0I imagine Robert Sapolsky walking to a room with Luc Besson and recalling both of the "Human Sexual Behavior" seminars.
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