In a new YouTube video, Marco from Nerdkultur discusses the sci-fi epic “The Fifth Element” and explains what makes this film a masterpiece.
Who is Marco Risch? Since 2015, Marco Risch has been uploading videos with news, reviews, analyses, and interviews about current movies, series, and video games on his YouTube channel Nerdkultur .
In his Podcast Nerd & Kultur , he chats every Sunday with his colleague Yves Arievich about topics like Star Wars, Marvel, and DC. With both, he is part of the Webedia network, which also includes MeinMMO.
In a new video, Marco talks about The Fifth Element, a film from 1997 that somehow actually feels like it was conjured from the imagination of a child, and that’s precisely its strength:
What makes this film so special? One point that Marco mentions at the beginning of his video is the country of production for The Fifth Element. Despite the Hollywood cast and truly impressive production, this film is not a Hollywood blockbuster, as one might assume.
The Fifth Element is a French production by Luc Besson. Besson even wrote the story during his school days at the age of 16. After his surprise hit Léon – The Professional, he found the investors to realize his childhood dream and bring The Fifth Element to life.
And with this film, two records were broken: With estimated costs of $93 million, it was the most expensive European film at the time, and with $263 million at the box office, it also became the most successful.
French humor and the right tricks combined
Marco also talks in his video about the very “French” humor and the techniques used by Besson that make The Fifth Element a small masterpiece. The film relies heavily on situational comedy, centered images of characters, and hasty actions and reactions.
Besson employs some well-known principles to fit the vast narrative of the film into a mere 2 hours. Thus, the entire film does not follow the principle of “show, don’t tell” but rather the principle of “show AND tell.”
Perfectly coordinated scenes or conspicuously placed details that always have important uses ensure that The Fifth Element does not waste a single minute of film.
In his video, Marco also discusses Besson’s inspiration from various comics and his collaboration with some big names like Jean-Claude Mézières, Moebius, or Jean Paul Gaultier, who helped make The Fifth Element this unique experience.
So, when you watch the film next time, you might recognize that the entire fashion comes from a single creator, and such small details run through the entire social layers of the film.
Moreover, very little reliance was placed on 3D animations, and most of the sets are indeed real. Due to a miscalculation, the production even created the largest filmed explosion in an enclosed space up to that time. While this caused the entire set to burn down, it ultimately resulted in a very credible scene.
Marco also talks about another film with Bruce Willis in a different video: The film that was supposed to be “Die Hard”…
