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All the characters in a film have a specific purpose. Some of them contribute with certain information, some develop the story, and other supplies us with meaning and so on. What is interesting is that big characters (much screen time) sometimes have nothing to contribute regarding neither meaning nor story, and vice versa. A good example of this is Ruby Rhod. He does not influence anything regarding the development of the story; he is just the clown of the film. The characters different structural positions are called the hierarchy of discourses . I have created an outline over this where I have ranked the characters according to their influence to the development of the narrative.

Love is dead

T5E can be read as pure entertainment. Nevertheless, by analysing the way certain topics are represented in the narrative can help us see things a little more profound. The central theme in the film is love. This is signified throughout the whole movie. The only thing that can save earth from pure evil is seemingly an organic weapon (Leeloo) created by aliens. Nevertheless, as we see at the ending, she is not able to accomplish anything before Korben acknowledges his love fore her, thus the fifth element is love. Knowing this, there is no explanation given why not humans alone could be the catalysts for love. And when we interpret that, we can conclude that the main message is; love as we humans know it is dead or dieing, and only an outsider, an alien can bring it back. And not only any alien, she is the supreme being , she is gorgeous, strong, charmingly na ve, pure at heart, she possesses all the good qualities humans have, and non of the bad, she is perfect and thus, more human than human.

The fact that only love could save the world brings us to another theme. Take the binary opposition technology vs. the primitive fore instance. We saw in the film that humans with all their new equipment and knowledge like the ability to travel at light speed or re-generating cells into full functional beings could not save the earth, rather the opposite. Technology represented through weapons only made the enemy stronger, while the primitive emotion love defeated it. This is a classical theme, dealing with the issue that while we search for new knowledge and explore unknown frontiers, we forget what is important, which is to protect life through love. The cherry scene in Zorg`s office expresses this view very clear when Zorg chokes on a cherry and has no one to help him but his sworn enemy.

Some other obvious binary opposition in the narrative:

Characters Leeloo vs. The sphere

Korben vs. Agnot

Cornelius vs. Zorg

Characteristics innocence vs. culpability

ignorant vs. wise

beautiful vs. ugly

strong vs. weak

Settings earth vs. space

past vs. future

Themes good vs. evil

hate vs. love

technology vs. man

war vs. peace

Law and order is a relatively big issue in the film, and is to a certain degree combined with technology. We get the impression that big brother always sees you. Everything is monitored: where you are, how you drive, what you say etc. not very unlike how the situation is today, but to a more extreme extent. Luckily for the good guys , the technology has its flaws and can be outsmarted, as shown in the taxi scene. Another known film that deals with this theme is Gattaca.

The only couple in the film, Leeloo and Korben are represented in such a remarkably simple way that analysing it further than the fact that they found each other and fell in love, will be to read something in to the text rather than out of it. And maybe that love sometimes can be uncomplicated is a message in it self.

The Conclusion

I have shown how I have constructed meaning based the methods named above. Even though T5E do not have a deep story, I have tried to illustrate different interpretations of the signs given by the filmmaker without overanalysing or reading things into the text. I have also questioned some of the methods used in an attempt to demonstrate that there is no right or wrong way to read a text, only different interpretations. However, I must say that I do not like the idea of analysing a film in an academic way. By doing that I think we somehow take away some of the sole which every good movies has. Fore example, I cannot express how I feel when I see some of the extraordinary sceneries or even start to describe the atmosphere of certain scenes. It can be like poetry, it is not meant to be understood in a specific way, but to be felt in an individual way.

REFERESNCES

Cook, D. (1996) D.W. Griffith and the Development of Narrative Form.

A History of Narrative Film Third Edition, New York. London: Emory University. 65

Nietzsche, F (1887) The Genealogy of Moral. 14-18

O`Shaughnessy, M. (1999). Narrative Structure and Binary Oppositions. Media and Society. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 107 and 126

Ryan, F. (1997 June, issue). Big Bada Boom. Maxim Magazine, 29.

Turner, G. (1993). Film Narrative. Film as Social Practice 2nd Edition, London: Routledge 68

The Fifth Element (1997) [film] USA: 20th Century Fox

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