In my latest “OMG – how-old-am-I?” revelation, the arrival of this book reminds me that Luc Besson’s film was released 29 years ago, with its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 7 1997.
Watching it at the time, there was a lot I loved – Bruce Willis doing his usual Bruce Willis impression, Gary Oldman being a rather flamboyant and distinctly unhinged bad guy, and Milla Jovovich as Leeloo being – unworldly. There’s even Ian Holm, one of my favourite actors at the time, before he went on to be Bilbo Baggins in 2001.
But…and it was a big challenge for me…. At the same time I HATED Chris Tucker’s Ruby Rhod character. (it’s also a sign of the quality of the actor that he was so annoying!) He was loud, irritating and just felt out of place for me.
Despite this, I consider myself to be a fan of Besson’s work, and in particular his film settings. The Fifth Element is a reflection of Besson’s passion for the film to be more than just a science fiction film with quirky characters. To me it was reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s work in places, with its grimy, downtrodden texture, but was then expanded into something that was more Star Wars, with a more galactic feel – and perhaps a bigger budget.
The book begins with an Introduction by Patrice Girod and Arnaud Grunberg, the editors of this book, outlining how much they revere the film and Besson. Much of the material in this book has come from their collective Archives as they are to open a museum -STARFIX – in France in 2027, with over 10 000 props, costumes, models, full-size vehicles, poster art and concept artwork from The Fifth Element and also Back to the Future, Star Wars, The Matrix and many other significant SF movies of recent years.
There is then a Foreword by Joe Johnston (director of The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park Ill and Captain America First Avenger), where Johnston emphasises the importance of the design as an essential character of the film, and compares Besson with George Lucas, who Johnston has worked with before.
We then get to the meat of the book properly, the script itself. Given in ten chapters, the script is the film’s shooting script from January 1996. Generally, it is pretty much ‘as used’ in the film, although Girod & Grunsburg freely admit that they have made minor edits, with dialogue changed to match the film, and scenes rearranged in order to match the film.
This would make interesting reading in itself, but what elevates this book is that the script of about 250 large glossy pages are illustrated throughout with photos, blueprints and plans, concept sketches and model photos taken as the film was being made. Models were used as well as digital effects, as this was made just as CGI was beginning to proliferate.
The detail is impressive.
What struck me most here was how much thought that gone into the production details. The production artwork is frankly stunning, with the iconic work of artists Moebius and Jean-Claude Mezieres (the artist for Valerian and Laureline)* being instantly recognisable, but there are also physical models, photographs, concept art and blueprints throughout all of which are shown in the book.
Films can often change a great deal from planning to the final version. Looking through the book, I found it remarkable how little this has changed. In terms of the script, any scenes cut out of the final film are marked, but there’s not many.
Similarly, whilst some of the costume and set designs were changed, I noticed very few. The scenes in 2259 New York were originally to be filmed at night, but were changed to daytime, possibly due to the request from Besson and Patrice Garcia that they not be like Blade Runner. Certainly, this version of New York circa 2259 seems more colourful and more flamboyant, and the fold-out scene of the city given here is as impressive as you’d expect.
However, Leeloo’s orange strap costume seems to be there from the early planning stages, as too the costume of the Diva (played by Maiwenn Le Besco) which is awesome but looks horrendously uncomfortable.
Towards the end of the book, and after the script, the narrative ties things up with some background details. There’s a brief section on the music of the film by Eric Serra, whom Besson has worked with more than once, and a short history of Besson’s previous work for Zaltman Bleros, inspired by his father Claude.
The Epilogue shows us briefly what happened upon the film’s release. There’s a film poster concept by Laurent Lufoy. It was the most successful film in French film history until Besson’s own Lucy in 2014, and Besson deservedly won the CESAR Award for Best Director in 1998.
Summing up, The Fifth Element – A Visual Retrospective shows in detail how a film develops, from blueprint and concept art to the finished product. Most of all, it is a record of Besson’s vision that created the script and the movie, by showing his unique architecture, spaceships and aliens that make the movie memorable. His imaginative visual flair, along with that of his team, is so strong here that I think that you could enjoy this book even without the script.
This book made me appreciate Besson’s work more and made me want to go and watch the film again (even with Ruby!), which can only be a good thing.
I suspect I may not be the only person who will do so after reading this book.
© 2026 Mark Yon
Hardback | Titan Books
THE FIFTH ELEMENT – A Visual Retrospective – Edited by PATRICE GIROD and ARNAUD GRUNBERG
Includes the complete script of the film by LUC BESSON and ROBERT MARK KAMEN and a Foreword by JOE JOHNSTON.
September 2026 | 272 pages
ISBN: 978 183 5411 940
All images courtesy of Titan Books.
*Both artists are now sadly dead, but the book is dedicated to them and their craft.
