Post by CM
If we only use 10% of our brains what’s the other 90% doing – moping around being all grey and lumpy? Experts have repeatedly said that that’s cray talk; we use 100% of our brains but perhaps not to its full capacity. So, by sorta using the whole 10% myth in conjunction with real science-shmience to explain what would happen once a person’s consiousness started evolving, via Morgan Freeman, to the dumb old audience, Luc Besson’s newest fantasy action flick Lucy hops to it.
A curly bobbed Scarlett Johannson has drugs sewn into her that start to leak and begin to activate the rest of her brain’s potential. What will happen when she reaches 100%? She’ll get 10 As in her Leaving? She definitely would! Along with learning languages and quantum physics and other stuff in mere seconds, and being able to change her hair colour and style at will (handy).
She becomes quite the bad ass and it’s a really fun and entertaining movie, but there’s no real fashion element to it; unconcerned with trivial things as her brain power rises, the only accessory she wears consistently is blood spatter on her right temple. Yeah, it’s that kind of movie. But it got me thinking about Luc Besson’s Bruce Willis vehicle The Fifth Element, and its Jean Paul Gaultier designed wardrobe.
If you haven’t seen it, you really should because it’s great. A lot of that is thanks to the visuals, and because it’s set in the fairly distant future you can be sure that the art department had plenty of fun dreaming up the sets, from gritty down town New York to a holiday complex in space. But enough about that – to the costumes!
When I was searching for images for this piece, very few results showed pics from the actual movie; most were various forms of cos-play. It’s a testament as to how iconic it’s become – sure, it’s a sci-fi sexy get-up but so easy, wrap some loo-roll around you and voila!
Even though the female lead, Leelool, does eventually change out of her bandage based ensemble, it’s not into anything much more modest, and I think we can all see where the influence for Borat’s mankini came from. But if you had Milla Jovovich’s body you’d probably have no shame in wearing this outfit either.
True to Gaultier’s usual aesthetic the costumes are generally overtly sexual, but in a playful way. I wonder where Britney Spears’s toxic video got her flight attendant uniform idea from, hmm?
The most fun he has is with Chris Tucker’s manic DJ character Ruby Rhod, who is quite the lady’s man despite his penchant for skin tight body-suits:
Bruce Willis generally sticks with his tried and trusted vest, but this time it’s orange so at least he’s mixed it up a bit. And he has bleached hair! Remember when he had hair…
So you may be wondering why we’ve suddenly gone all sci-fi on you. Well yes, we do have an ulterior motive. Brother Mouse is in the midst of develping a science fiction short, following his graduation from film school, and is interested in collaborating with like-minded people on the costumes. Do you, or does anyone you know, have any thoughts or sketches you’d like to share? Get in touch with us at townmouse.countrymouse.ireland@gmail.com for more information!
