Luc Besson's Le Grand Bleu | The Big Blue (1988)

In Hadrien Bels's novel Cinq dans tes yeux (2020), there's a rather icy conversation between 'Stress' and a young woman on the beach in Marseille. He asks her what she's studying, and when she says cinema he asks if she's at university or perhaps (oh the sarcasm!) with Femis. No, 'BTS Audiovisuel'.  And she wants to be a film director! And what about her taste in films? Le Grand Bleu, she replies. Contemptuously, Stress says 'Ah OK'. Stress has been weaned on films, and when he reels off a list of directors she thinks she's heard of Pasolini, but thinks he's crap ('chiant').

Being a prime example of le cinéma du look, Le Grand Bleu is largely set in and under the sea, with wonderful photography. Unsurprisingly, it was a great hit with the regular filmgoer, but rather less so with the critics: starring Jean Reno as Enzo Molinari and Jean-Marc Barr as Jacques Mayol, the film concerns their rivalry, their suicidal free-diving without an aqualung. In the end Jacques leaves a pregnant Johana (Rosanna Arquette) to join the underwater world forever. And essentially that is the story, which I found tedious and pointless.

In Cinq dans tes yeux, Stress's mate Nordine (who's obviously not received the same film education), says 'Le Grand Bleu, that's the guy swimming with dolphins [...] honestly, that's a lovely film'. Oh yeah, but...

Luc Besson's The Fifth Element | Le troisième élément (1997)

This big-budget, big star and action-packed film is by no means the kind I normally have time for, although as I'd previously seen and appreciated Luc Besson's Léon (1994), I thought it would be churlish of me to dismiss it when the opportunity to view presented itself. Flush from three successes, Le Grand Bleu (1988), Nikita (1990) and Leon, Besson was in a position to have the support of producers to come up with an expensive blockbuster, which turned out to be very successful, although it's perhaps, as we're talking about the relatively recent history, and good idea to mention a word of the Cinéma du Look, which like many overarching lazy expressions (such as Nouvelle vague) applies more to a style or series of styles than a movement.

First of all, Raphaël Bassan, in La Revue du Cinéma in 1989, gave three French directors as representing the Cinéma du look: Luc Besson, Jean-Jaquess Beineix and Leos Caros. Post-Nouvelle vague, narrative now took a back seat as look triumphed over substance, the visual took over from the intellectual, young alienated film characters were said to represent the marginalised youth of François Mitterrand's France. Bassan saw Beineix's Diva (1981) as the first postmodern film. It's generally thought the Cinéma du look ended in the mid-1990s, so The Third Element falls a little outside that category.

But then The Third Element, I would say, falls outside any category. It is considered to fall within the science fiction genre, and the mid-twenty-third century setting, the flying cars in what looks like an ultra-modern New York, the space rockets, etc, give credence to this. And yet at the same time it also seems to pre-figure The Da Vinci code, and even old-fashioned Hollywood love stories.

Most of the main characters – Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), LeeLoo (Milla Jovovich) and the priest (Ian Holm) – save this from disaster. The first half in general looks very good and there are some brilliant visual displays, although the increasingly manic Zorg (Gary Oldham), the annoying rubbery creatures and the even more annoyingly camp Chris Tucker didn't quite manage to induce sleep in the second half. One really odd thing though: the telephones in 2263  are much more outdated than those of today. I still wouldn't have liked to miss this film all the same.