- Just who is the Diva? Those hoses that connect her head to her hips or wherever they go-are they just part of the costume or is she supposed to be an alien that needs these connections? This was a really great scene with her singing, especially when she starts in whoops and flourishes. Who played the part? And why does she have stones in her that Bruce Willis takes out? Are these four out of the five elements? How did she get shot in the first place? I thought her whole role was very moving.
2) Why did a beautiful red-haired girl come from a claw of the big metallic monster with a beak in that special machine? Was she supposed to be him in human form?
3) I assumed that the newsperson was Rue Paul, but I don’t find him credited with the part. Are there two people like Rue Paul in the world?
4) When will we be seeing more movies with the red-haired lady in them, and with the blue Diva–they are both excellent actresses.
The Diva was played by Maïwenn Le Besco. I think she also played Natalie Portman’s step mother in Leon: The Professional.
The red-haired girl was played by Milla Jovovich, whos been in a few other Luc Besson movies (like Messenger:The Joan of Arc story).
The newscaster was Chris Tucker. He’s been in alot of movies. His first (and I think best) movie was Friday.
I didn’t entirely understand the plot of the movie, so I’ll let someone else answer your other questions. Though I do think that what Bruce Willis pulled out of the Diva’s stomach were the four elements (the fifth element being Milla Jovavich) that were used at the end of the movie.
I saw the movie. Liked it. Sorta understood it.
The 4 stones are indeed four of the five “elements”:
Wind
Water
Earth
Fire
The Fifth Element (the red-haired girl) is the Supreme Being. They need to put all the elements together in some temple to fight this big fireball thing hurtling towards the earth (a metaphor for evil?).
I think the Diva was an alien. I do not think the hoses were part of the diva suit, they were tentacles.
I’m not sure if she was intentionally shot or not, but it was one of those alien-bad-guy-trollish-looking things that shot her. Not sure how and why she had the stones inside of her abdomen, though.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I’ve seen the movie several times, but still haven’t figured everything out about it. Here’s my WAGs:
1a - I had assumed the weird head and the tubes for the diva were part of her body, but the last time I watched it (last week) it almost looked like the big head thing was a hat.
1b - She had the stones in her because she’s some sort of alien who is able to do such things, and the stones were given to her to keep as safe as possible.
1c - She got shot cuz the bad guys were shooting everyone, and a 7’ tall blue alien standing on a stage is just too easy of a shot to pass up.
2 - I assumed the big metal aliens were just suits that were worn by human-looking people. If you look closely at the claw, it’s like a big glove with a human hand/forearm in it. They used their super-dooper DNA reconstruction machine to reconstruct Milla from the DNA left in the hand.
3 - like Starbury said, Chris Tucker played Ruby the newscaster.
4 - Who knows? Milla was in Messenger, never saw the blue diva in anything else.
Milla Jovovich was also in Return to Blue Lagoon and Chaplin. She also models professionally and released an album a while back.
Leeloo (sp?) was taken from the temple in Egypt during WWII to be kept by the Mondoshiwan (again, sp?) until she would be needed on earth again. The ship returning her to earth was destroyed, the glove and a few cells were all that was left. I would think that she had a suit of Mondoshiwan design.
Don, please do not drink and post…
Thank you from MADP (Mothers Against Drunk Posting).
You also might be interested to know that the Diva’s song was performed by Inva Mulla. The part at the beginning was the Aria from “Lucia Di Lammermoor” by Gaetano Donizetti and was sung normally, but the latter half of the song, with all the whooping and whatnot was modified by computer.
luc besson and milla jovovich were married. they got divorced, so don’t figure on seeing her in any of his newer films. also, the woman who played the diva had a child by luc. so now you know how to get a part in a luc besson movie- sleep with him. marry him (for a while, at least) to get starring roles.
to see what movies someone has been or is going to be in, go to imdb.com and do a search on their name. if you didn’t understand the plot in the fifth element, don’t stress- it isn’t important.
-fh
Leeloo (i agree, sp?) was in some sort of suit prior to the crash of the ship. I think there was a scene filmed, or at least planned, to show the warriors destroying Leeloo and taking the case she wasw holding. If you look closely, the glove is holding part of the handle of the case. When you next see the case being presented to Zorg, one of the handles is missing. Either someone in film continuity was planning for a scene in between, or Luc is one detailed SOB.
Everything you could possibly want to know about the Diva, the actress that portrayed her, and the artist that did the actual singing can be found here:
http://home.cwru.edu/~agw4/diva/dindex.htm
I own the movie on DVD, and have seen it probably too many times, and just so everyone know, it’s spelled Leilu, not Leeloo. At least that’s what the end credits say. Since the rest of the question in the OP were already answered, this is all I’m going to add.
I am personally obliged to step in and say that Ruby Rod stole the whole show. He was, by far, the most three dimensional character in the entire movie. I would like to have seen him get a best supporting actor nomination for his role.
Bruce Willis’ jewish mother was a total hoot! The body fabrication machine sequence should have been nominated for special effects as well, that scene was breath taking.
Too bad they couldn’t have come up with a better antagonist than a rumbling, roiling nasty looking cloud of L.A. smog. Having a “Darth Vader” figure would have really pulled up the movie’s socks a bit.
The movie, overall, was an excellent sci-fi romp. Not on par with 2001 or anything but still a good showing. The costumes and external city sets were superb.
Nonetheless, the flick remains as one of my favorites in recent years. I showed it to some friends recently for their first time and they liked it as well.
…Ok, so Leilu was that thing that had its finger crushed in WWII, or was she the one on the ship?
Also, what happened to that machine that had been trapped? If it was made of metal, at least PART of it would’ve been left…
No, Leilu was the statue facing upwards they took. The alien with it’s hand crushed just, er, died, I guess.
–Tim
Leilu was in the statue that the aliens took with them.
::smacks Homer in the arm::
You owe me a coke!
I’m pretty sure that if you watch the last scene of the movie, you can see that the 5th element ain’t meant to be Leelo, it’s Love. The main characters run around activating the four stones with their corresponding element. (fire for fire, water for water, etc.). Leelo is then “activated” when Bruce Willis tells her he loves her. Hence the 5th element is Love.
An interestingly fairytalesque way to end a sci-fi flick.
As for why she had the stones, that’s explained as well. Remember the scene where the bad guy is spying on the military guys with the remote controlled cockroach? Well, if you listen to the military guys, they explain that they were in contact with the guys whose ship blew up, and they in turn explained that it was too risky to bring the four stones to Earth, so they entrusted them to “someone” on Flostom Paradise, and that Leilu would get in touch with her once activated and get them back. That also 'splains why the bad guys went there too.
what I didn’t understand was Gary Oldman’s accent. What the hell was going on there?
jb
I read that it was done by soprano Kiri Te Kanawa. You can pull the Diva Song off Napster by using her name. The first part is her singing but the freaky cool second part is actually her voice sampled and then run through on a keyboard. You can actually hear this effect better on the Napster version than you can on the movie itself. Sweet song!
Re: Gary’s accent. Who knows! Maybe just an effect to make the guy creepier than he was. I was picking up a Texas New Yorker.