Variant "Story of" Books

I managed to order a somewhat new copy of Luc Besson's book, The Adventure and Discovery of a Film:  The Story of The Fifth Element.  My English copy is pretty worn out and abused, so I thought I'd order the French version just to have a better copy.  You can find the book cheap on amazon.com under L'histoire du cinquieme element.  Most of these copies are imported from Japan.  I paid just over $35 for mine.  It's somewhat used, but in good condition nonetheless.

For a long time I've heard that this was the only Luc Besson book to be translated into English, with its French counterpart.  I had NO idea that the book I would be getting would be entirely in Japanese!  I had no idea that this variant even existed.  I have the La Femme Nikita Story of book as well, and as we know, outside of The Fifth Element, none of his other books are translated outside of France.  So I was VERY surprised.

There are a few slight differences from the English version, such as a wrap cover with the actor pictures, over the book face which is just very plain.  The book also does not finish its artwork off with the French Metro Leeloo poster, but with additional concept sketches in black and white.

I HIGHLY suggest picking up this book if you can.  It's an exceptional piece and a nice variant on an already existing out of print book.  If you can handle having your copy in Japanese, then the prices listed on Amazon are pretty fantastic for a book that's out of print in English and exceptionally expensive.

Plus, it's always neat to discover something new.

Please keep in mind that this is a 1998 reprint via Sony Magazine and Intervista, and is labeled a "premiere edition".

Good luck and happy hunting!

Hi all,

I'm beginning research and work for my "unofficial guide to".  I will keep this blog up in the meanwhile amd update as progress continues.  This book will likely be self-published and limited in quantity.  If you are interested leave feedback, and keep in mind this is an ongoing project which will take time.  I don't have a price point or anything in mind yet for the book - I am doing this for fun and it will take time before I have the details sorted out.

Hi all!

You can view my personal Fifth Element collection here:  Fifth Element Collection .  This is by no means an exhaustive collection as I have more items to photograph and post.

Thanks and enjoy!

Hi all,

As always, thank you for your patience.  Eventually I will get photos uploaded so you know some of these things exist and I'm not just talking out of my rear.  I haven't been well lately so I've just been going to work and coming home to sleep, primarily.

So, I have requests for the "Vacation Cruise" song.  I will let you know when I have it uploaded for your pleasure!  My husband will have to handle that for me.  I will link it when it's ready.

In other 5th news that I have been up to, I created my own Leeloo custom action figure!  She looks good for what she is, and I'm proud of her.  Many years ago I created mini stones out of sculpey, so she has her own set to go with.  Again, pictures will follow.  I may just upload to my photobucket account and leave the album on public.  I'll link here.  There are already plenty of pictures up but not everything.  I created her out of a "Gen 13" Fairchild figure that I got in a lot off of ebay with other castaway figures.  So, I just sanded and Xacto'd off parts, repainted, painted, painted, painted.  I am by no means a professional customizer like some people I know in the pop culture world, but for a first try she looks good to me.  I created her suspenders out of craft foam and just painted them and glued them on.  It had to happen in 2 pieces but it happened.

Anyway, a lackluster update but there you go.

Surprise!

I have actually begun my Heavy Metal/The Fifth Element comparison.  I will upload the essays in chunks - so far I have finished the first part of Heavy Metal so I'll be writing about it soon.

I found a copy of Moby's Everything is Wrong CD.  I bought it used, for $6 at a local shop.  It includes the trailer music used for the trailers for The Fifth Element.  Though the song is also used on the Archival Soundtrack (I'm calling it that for lack of a better title), it's tweaked slightly different.  The entire track is on Moby's album and is quite enjoyable, though it does not build up like the trailer music does.  The title of the track is "First Cool Hive", and it is track number 8.

Some news! And answers to comments!

Hello to those of you following who have left me comments.  First of all, thanks for reading.  Secondly, I'd like to address some of your reader questions.

1.  Anonymous, I'm sorry, I do not sell the pass kits.  I bought one myself, and a nice version pops up on eBay every so often for a nice price.  I will put them together and send them back though if you purchase one and you're shy about making it.

2.  "Vacation Cruise" is found on the 2-disc collector's edition of the soundtrack.  I'm going to address this track here.  You can find information on it on imdb.com's The Fifth Element page. I don't know if the track that was found is the actual song, because I couldn't get the external link and song sample to work for me.  So I'm not sure if it's THE song or not.  Unfortunately I do not have any other information besides the soundtrack and the imdb site.

I am happy to report my surgery went well and I have been able to function much better since.  This weekend we had Wizard World's ComicCon in St. Louis so I had an opportunity to go for a couple of days.

The first day I wore my Leeloo wig, shirt, multipass, and "I Love Leeloo" pin.  The second day I wore a usual David Bowie-as-the-Goblin-King from Labyrinth shirt, and I met a couple more Leeloos.  One was wearing the bandage outfit and the other wore the suspenders outfit.  I got a few pics, plus pics of me wearing the wig and other assorted superhero junk.

The second day scored a major hit for me.  After all of this time I found the 2-disc "Collector's Archival Edition" of The Fifth Element soundtrack!  It's the original 1997 version and it was a decent price all things considered.  Unfortunately the seller does not have an online site but he had plenty of beautiful rare soundtracks to drool over.  So now, with this soundtrack, I can confirm its existence and track listings as authentic.  It's been hard for me to find online but I was unaware of the "archival" tag it has and yes, "Vacation Cruise" is the title of the song, which means nothing because some of the songs are labeled differently than the commercially available score anyway.  These tracks are also listed differently than the 50-track 10th anniversary score.  Shortly, when I have them uploaded, I will post picture.  I also managed to get a hold of the soundtrack version with the limited edition rubber cover.  I am not sure where this puts my soundtrack count at, but it's getting high.

If I haven't addressed your questions, and you have something specific you'd like to ask, just leave a comment and I will get to it when I can.  I still work and do advocacy work as well as being sick still (though I'm much better than I was, and thank you for wishing me well), so I am not always available, as usual.

I'm still planning on that Heavy Metal/Fifth comparison and I have it on my mind constantly, so look for that very soon.

Kit sossian-devet-deset!

Yeah, absences.

Hi all,

If you'r reading this, I apologize.  Due to health problems and new jobs, I have been away for quite a while.  I now work with the non-profit organization Chronic Migraine Awareness, as well as the National Headache Foundation, so I've been extremely busy helping to get CMA off the ground.  I still work a day-to-day in the restaurant industry, but it is sometimes difficult to keep up with everything when you are feeling so badly and working so hard.  I have not been neglecting my Fifth Element hobby, however, so I can chat about some things I have been up to there.

Firstly, I made Leeloo's wig.  It turned out very well, and once I am finished nitpicking minor finishing details, I will post a picture.  I basically ordered a nice, neon orange wig off the internet, used a red permanent marker in different layers, and twisted and glued sections to get the dreads.  I also put in her braid, which is a detail some people forget or you sometimes don't see it in the film, especially later on when the dreads have kind of fallen out and Leeloo is looking weary.

Secondly, I am finishing a set of Multipass kits.  It took me a long time to get moving on them because the paint fumes are a migraine trigger for me, or if I am in a very bad attack, I cannot paint.  However, the past few days have been kind to me and so I have been hard at work on them, and I can say they should be done by this weekend, and I will post pics of these too.  These are not Munson kits, and I am not sure of the casting, but for references I stuck closer to the film outside of Leeloo's photo, which is very difficult to get a official film screenshot of.  The casting on these kits was not great, so I had to sand and sand and prime and prime some more.  They won't be as flashy and don't light up like the Munson kits do, but I think once they are put together and lacquered they will look great.  These kits run about $25 each.

Thirdly, I am putting together a kit of the temple key from the film.  It cost all of $10 to get this kit, but you have to be patient putting it together.  I don't advise doing what I did - gluing the key pieces straight onto the stem.  If you consider this kit, please be advised there are no grooves machined into the stem so you might want to carefully sand some grooves for yourself.  I was overeager but the almost-finished product is looking great.  Again, will post photos when it's finished.

Fourthly, I still intend on doing a side-by-side comparison of the film "Heavy Metal" with "The Fifth Element."  As you may or may not know, the artist Moebius was partly responsible for the film "Heavy Metal" as well as the magazine of the same name, and he also contributed heavily to the look and design of "The Fifth Element."  Sadly, he passed away earlier this year.

Fifth, I am still working on translating Meziere's art book on "The Fifth Element."

My Leeloo wig serves kind of a dual purpose - on October 17th I am going to have surgery to implant a neurostimulator in order to control my chronic migraines.  My head will be partially shaved for the surgery and I will have a very short haircut above that because my hair is very long and I don't want to deal with it while my head is healing.  To be straight, on the 17th I go in for a trial surgery and so my hair has already been cut short, and if the trial is successful I will be having the permanent put in sometime in November, so my head will be shaved then.  I thought it would be a lot of fun to just wander around with a Leeloo wig.  If it's not the right time, then I don't know what is.

Sorry for any delay in answering questions.  My blog email is not linked to my Android so I don't get notifications there.  I notice I get plenty of traffic to the blog but there are few comments, therefore, I rarely check into this email.  I'll try to be more studious in checking, however, please forgive my long moments of silence as I am working a lot and trying to balance life with bad health.  This blog is still going to be running as 5th is a major hobby of mine and I don't see that ending anytime soon.