"The Fifth Element" had one scene that seemed impossible to shoot. And it was almost lost forever.
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00:00 "The Fifth Element" had one scene that seemed impossible to shoot, and it was almost lost
00:05 forever.
00:06 When you think about Hollywood blockbusters, French cinema is not the first thing that
00:09 comes to mind.
00:10 French filmmaker Luc Besson abandoned expectations and turned the sci-fi genre on its head with
00:14 the 1997 release of "The Fifth Element."
00:17 With roots in French new wave cinema that emphasizes visual style and experimentation,
00:22 Besson created a unique kind of film with bold and bombastic fashion, humorous and bizarre
00:27 antagonists, and a dystopian future set to lush colors rather than monotone palettes.
00:32 He is credited as one of the creators of the French film approach known as "cinéma du
00:36 look," which emphasizes style over substance.
00:39 In the case of "The Fifth Element," it has both.
00:42 As The Atlantic notes, when the film's hero, Corbin Dallas, played by Bruce Willis, became
00:46 misty-eyed in a moment of revelation during the opera scene, it was something unheard
00:50 of in a modern-day blockbuster.
00:52 In Khan Solo weeping rather than replying "I know" to Princess Leia's love confession,
00:57 or Neo disconnecting from the simulation to collect himself whilst shedding a tear,
01:01 "Whoa."
01:02 As iconic as the opera scene may have been, it almost didn't make it.
01:05 An accident on an airplane tarmac nearly eliminated that pivotal scene, which would have put the
01:10 entire film in jeopardy.
01:11 This moment in the film is often referred to as "the diva scene."
01:15 The diva, played by Maïwenn Labesco, is an alien opera singer who carries four engraved
01:20 stones — four of the five elements — inside her.
01:23 She gives a moving performance before losing her life.
01:26 In an article for Entertainment Weekly, members of the film's production crew shared some
01:29 insights about the powerful scene.
01:32 First Assistant Director Chris Carreras explained that it was shot like a concert, describing
01:36 it as "jaw-dropping."
01:37 You wouldn't think a concert sequence in the middle of an action film would be the most
01:40 difficult scene to shoot, but as Creature Design Supervisor Nick Dudman said,
01:44 "We ended up with Maïwenn on 14-inch stilts, wearing a skin-tight foam and latex dress
01:49 that had to be made in one single piece with no seams.
01:52 It was nerve-wracking.
01:53 Shooting at night in the opera house, worrying about whether the latex was going to peel
01:57 off or if she stepped forward too far in the stilts, would she just scream and disappear
02:01 into the orchestra pit?
02:02 There were lots of worries."
02:03 While they managed to successfully shoot this scene, they weren't in the clear after everything
02:07 was filmed.
02:08 Associate Producer John Amacarella explained how the movie negatives for the scene had
02:12 fallen off the airplane and onto the tarmac at LAX.
02:15 To make matters worse, it was run over by a forklift.
02:18 The beautiful diva scene was reduced to a mess of film canisters and trash cans, but
02:22 luckily, the editors were able to salvage the negatives and cut them together into the
02:26 scene that Besson wanted.
02:27 "It's my lucky day."
02:29 What might the fifth element have looked like without the scene?
02:32 If they hadn't salvaged enough footage, the crew would have had to reshoot it to establish
02:36 the basic premise of the diva's concert.
02:38 Unfortunately, reshoots are rarely as extensive as principal photography, and there's no doubt
02:42 that the film would have suffered without the original footage.
02:45 More importantly, the concert contains the story's most cathartic moment.
02:49 The diva scene gives Corbin Dallas and the film's viewers a brief respite from the nonstop
02:53 action that assaults the senses.
02:55 Without it, the narrative would focus mostly on the action sequence with the alien Mangalores.
03:00 The pause serves as a moment of reflection for Dallas, and it's important for his character
03:04 arc.
03:05 It completes his transformation from reluctant hero to galvanized savior of humanity.
03:09 This essential scene sets Corbin Dallas apart from the flat, Western-inspired heroes that
03:13 came before him.
03:14 Thankfully, the greatness of the fifth element was saved with the recovery of the diva scene
03:18 footage.
03:19 The film was a labor of love that Luc Besson began writing when he was a teenager.
03:23 The end result made $263 million worldwide.
03:26 Not bad for an aspiring teenage screenwriter.
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