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| The Fifth Element (1997) concept art by Jean Moebius Giraud |
"My rule is always a little ambiguous, because I'm hired as a production designer, but that's not really what I'm good at or what I do. Where I'm really the strongest is stepping outside of the rules and guidelines and really just entering into my own artistic dream state. And my position as a star sort of allows me that privilege." -Moebius
One of the most strikingly visual movies of the last fifty years was The Fifth Element (1997) two of the designers were developed by Jean Moebius Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières.
Check out a behind-the-scenes video and more concept art after the jump and click the images to enlarge.
Update: Removed all images that are not by Moebius
The following 18 minute video goes behind-the-scenes of their relationship and their amazing designs for the film.
Seeing how much joy he got working on the movie makes the next point strange. Years later, in 2011, the designer filed a complaint for plagiarism of his series "The Incal" in the movie "The Fifth Element".
"The designer Moebius and publisher Humanoids Associates today have lost their lawsuit against Luc Besson and Gaumont they accused of having infringed the comic 'The Incal' in the movie 'The Fifth Element' released in 1997. The plaintiffs complained of 'borrowings under clear, the scenery, scenes, characters and graphics and scriptwriting to Incal.' They demanded 13.1 million for unfair competition, 9 million in damages and 2-5% of net operating revenue of the film. The writer of comics, Alexandro Jodorowsky, also called 700,000 euros. The high court, however, gave reason for Luc Besson who considered that the applicants' claims that were not based 'on tiny fragments of the work' cartoon. It has however rejected the 100,000 euros in damages requested by the director for abuse of process." - Toutenbd (Translated from French)
(Images Via Fikacoffeebreak, movieprops.fr, yourprops.com, theairtightgarage.tumblr.com)
Wikipedia Synopsis:
The Fifth Element (French: Le Cinquième Élément) is a 1997 English-language French science fiction film directed, co-written, and based on a story by Luc Besson. The film stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich. Mostly set during the twenty-third century, the film's central plot involves the survival of humanity, which becomes the duty of Korben Dallas (Willis)—a taxicab driver (and former special forces Major)—when a young woman (Jovovich) falls into his taxicab. Upon learning about her significance, Dallas must join efforts with the girl to recover four mystical stones essential to defending Earth from an impending attack.
See more of the late Jean Moebius Giraud's work at http://www.moebius.fr/
What do you think of the illustrations?
@ Copyright 1997 Gaumont, Jean Moebius Giraud. All rights reserved
Some amazing stuff. Moebius has worked on so many projects over the years. Most have seen his work and just didn't realize it.
ReplyDeleteNice shadowing and detailing in the artwork. Moebius deserves his dues.
ReplyDeleteThese are not all moebius' work. Most of the costumes are gaultier, and there's a few sylvian despretz in there too. I'll look out the book and send the list
ReplyDeleteYou know I thought some of them looked different. That would be awesome Jim.
ReplyDeleteHe has a very distinctive style Alex. It's a shame he's not known by the general public.
ReplyDeleteThe ONLY images by Moebius are (from the top and not counting the video inset) 6, 17, 28, 30, and 31. Moebius actually did very few images during the preproduction of 5th Element, only about 15. His major contribution was to get his "Incal" comic book ripped off (this ended in court years later when Jodorowsky and Moebius ended up unsuccessfully suing Besson for plagiarism). Most of the work on this page is by Patrice Garcia, with also contributions from Kamel Tazik, Jacques Rey, Humbert Chabuel, Sylvain Despretz, and a couple of Jean-Claude Mézières. You can research these things by checking them against the book published by Besson in which all this stuff is credited properly.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for identifying the artists on this film Dusty! I’ll update the post and change the credits. I’ll have to track down that book too.
ReplyDeleteI've updated the post to remove the images and featured Patrice Garcia's work here: http://filmsketchr.blogspot.com/2014/11/amazing-fifth-element-concept-art-by.html
ReplyDelete