The Fifth Element and Why Design Matters

I’ve been watching the film The Fifth Element for the past few hours. I haven’t seen it in a few years and viewing it after all this time feels like an entirely different experience from what I remember as a kid. Maybe its partly due to the mental clarity that I’ve been blessed with over the past year, but I suspect that this new appreciation that I have for the film is related to my burgeoning design consciousness.

The film is wonderfully designed, and as I watch it, I begin to see the elements of Daniel Pink’s conceptual age values.

Design
The film is wonderfully designed to integrate good storytelling, aesthetic values, humor, special effects and imagination. The director, Luc Besson clearly intended the film to be an integrated whole from its conception. Its an action film but does not exist for the sake of thrills. Similarly, it is filled with humor and great visuals, but is not a hollow shell for carrying these elements.

Story

Although the film is an epic, spanning space and time, from the first scene, it is written to connect with people. The prologue is an excellent example of this. It is simply a means of setting the story up, and yet the director focuses on characters such as the professor and his assistants as they are swept up in the wider plot. It would have been very easy to make these characters faceless and instead, focus on simply advancing the plot. Besson does not do this and it creates a connection with the audience which is carried through the remainder of the film. Each character is nuanced and important to the plot in some way, and every gunfight and battle is focused on its effects on particular personalities.

Symphony

The film is very cohesive, despite its diverse backdrops, cultural inspirations, and epic story. The film’s plot, acting, visuals, music, art design, pacing, and message all support one another. There is little that is extraneous. Ultimately, each element of the film is part of a greater whole which serves as a vehicle for intuitive meaning to be communicated to the audience.

Empathy

This brings me to empathy. As I mentioned before, the director focuses on characters, immediately building a bridge between them and the audience. This is built on throughout the film through an extensive use of humor. “Love is worth saving” has to be the message of the film. It is only said once in the entire film, but when it is uttered, I at least, felt that all of the design and aesthetics had been intended to support this truth. Love can be the emotional bond between people, or an expression of the sensual ecstasy that viewing the film brings audience members. Watching this film reminds me so much of what is beautiful in life.

Play

Humor is a key to the film. While it deals with an impending apocalypse, the film is never dour. It is filled with quirky characters, visual gags, and stylized, witty dialogue. Keeping things fun makes the film accessible and fresh. You can only feel up when you watch it, even though its meaning carries a wealth of grave insights.

Meaning

I touched on this with Empathy, but empathy can be meaningless without a message which could contribute to even one person’s quality of life. As the film ends, the audience is left with an impression of the beauty all around them and a sense that the character they play in this world can be as significant and important as those in the film.

A Refreshing Experience

This is my first post, and I hope that it represents what I intend to do with this blog. There are a lot of random ideas that come into my mind each day. Having this electronic record of them should help me express all of these interesting little moments. I think that this is empowering. Capturing our creativity is a key part of personal growth. Everyone has a creative spark. Unfortunately, many of us have forgotten this gift through years of discouraging socialization.

As The Fifth Element shows us, there is beauty in everything around us. I don’t think that it is expressed quite  often enough.

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