La Femme Nikita (1991)

Load of rubbish!!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Outstanding film. Watch the American remake (The Assassin) and compare the two. Don't worry about the subtitles, you won't notice them once you are absorbed. Brilliant

When the film opens, Nikita is a frail young woman who's literally dragged to a robbery, everyone is excited, but she seems absent, hanging on the miserable hope to get her fix. When everything goes wrong (and that's an understatement) she is sitting on the ground, passively watching cops and punks kill and being killed. At that point, she seems like a victim but then she cold-bloodily shoots a cop who actually cared for her, then even for us, she's beyond any kind of redemption. Things go rather quickly: she's arrested, put on trial and sentenced for perpetuity.But there's something in Anne Parillaud's performance (that won the French Oscar for Best Actress, the only award the film received) that turns Nikita into a genuinely enigmatic personality, we don't like her, there's not much question that she's a bad woman, but she's also a weird, infantile, grotesque, rude and excessively unpredictable person. The film doesn't suggest that she's victim of herself, but simply that there's a sort of vacuum in her life, her education or her mind that let criminal impulses fill it, she's bad but in an accidental sort of way. The film then ventures in "realistic fantasy" when she's put to sleep by injection and wakes up in a secret government organization specialized in recruiting new profiles for assignments to kill. What did they see in Nikita, we never know but the man in charge of her 'reeducation' is Bob, played by the great Tcheky Karyo and he's convinced that the girl has potential.Luc Besson knows his craft, he expected that the whole first act would consist on showing the evolution of Nikita from that sorry-excuse-for-a-woman to a professional female killer, meaning in subtext, that she'll have to become a woman as well, it's a rebirth, a metamorphosis she'll owe to her new job, and what an irony that killing people will be the counterpart to being alive. This paradox will shape the second personality of Nikita, who'll never stop to be a tortured woman but in a different way, she's just starting to enjoy life but the catch of her redemption consists on cold-blooded murders. But Besson knows our disbelief won't be suspended for long if the change isn't believable, we could believe his Leon was such a pro because we didn't see his back-story or his training, for Nikita, the film will have to become a character-study, and I guess this is why Besson started with an action sequence and some unexpected outburst during the training part.Nikita's unpredictability is the key to her appeal as an original character, until we know it's time to get over it, but it allows Besson to find the right balance between action and drama, and some moments like the interactions with Jeanne Moreau, teaching her how to smile, how to be a woman, is one of these emotional reliefs the story asks for. And it turns out that, because her life is still at stakes, because she's supposed to be dead and she's easily disposable, she becomes a real woman, feminine, pretty and gentle. And then, something interesting happens, there's a transfer from Nikita to the script in the unpredictability department, Nikita remains the same woman, vulnerable and melancholic and the excitement, the thrills come from Besson's hard-edged script. Yes, he is an expert of cinema "du look" as they say in France, and yes, he was one of these new talents with vision but he doesn't get enough credit for his screen writing. Her relationship with Pygmalion Bob is one of the aspects that elevate the film.I will not reveal all the film but there's just one scene that works on a perfect tertiary tempo, and it's just fascinating. Nikita is invited to a restaurant with Bob to celebrate her 'graduation', her gift is wrapped in a box, she opens it and her smile vanishes: it's a gun. She must kill someone. First surprise. She has three minutes to do it after Bob leaves, no time to think. Second surprise. She's suppose to get off from a little window located in men's toilets, when she gets there, it's walled. Third surprise. Each time, we see nothing coming, we're literally put in her high-heel shoes and try to figure out how she'll get from that situation. The action sequences that go after are spectacular but traditional, yet it works because Besson makes his action sequences as a dressing, not as a meal, the film is a terrific thriller because of the set-ups rather than the outcomes, the anticipation rather than the action especially since Nikita isn't exactly the Leon-professional type, the film almost works on a Hitchcockian level.And it could have worked alone with Nikita, Bob and the missions, but Besson adds a third dimension, a romance. Nikita falls in love with a gentle and smiling cashier played by Jean-Hugues Anglade, he's obviously not expecting such a beauty to approach him, but she does. Maybe because she's like him, she feels like an outcast, and she could tell he would love her, the organization reeducated her, but there was still a little void in her heart, and I just love how the film never tries to create artificial obstacles in their love, it's pure, passionate love, and it will overlap with the killing missions in the most creative and again, unexpected ways. That's exactly what I love about the film, it provides unexpected moments of thrills and emotions without being too original, it's a good thriller, romance and character-study.And trust Besson to always find a way to surprise you, every mission is memorable in a climactic or anti-climactic way, and just when it gets too routinely, he introduces one of this great supporting characters, Victor the Cleaner, played by Jean Reno, perhaps foreshadowing his performance as Léon. Victor is here for ten minutes but he makes the show but that's another story.

Vicious and scrappy junkie street criminal Nikita (an incredibly fierce and radiant performance by striking brunette beauty Anne Parillaud) gets sentenced to life in prison after she kills a cop. Nikita receives a chance at a new life and an opportunity for redemption when she's chosen to work for a top secret government agency as one of their key undercover spy assassins.Writer/director Luc Besson relates the gripping story at a steady pace, ably crafts a tough noir atmosphere, stages several bracing bravura action set pieces with breathtaking brio, generates lots of nerve-wracking tension in the harrowing last third when one of Nikita's covert missions goes disastrously awry, and further spruces things up with an amusing sense of brash humor. Better still, the sweet romantic relationship between Nikita and her unsuspecting nice guy boyfriend Marco (a sturdy and likable portrayal by Jean-Hugues Anglade) ensures that this film has a winning surplus of touching heart to go along with all arresting slick style. The uniformly excellent acting rates as another substantial plus: Parillaud makes for a strong and sympathetic anti-heroine, Tcerky Karyo contributes a spot-on sharp characterization as hard-nosed, but compassionate mentor Bob, Jeanne Moreau registers well as the supremely elegant Amande, and Jean Reno pulls out the frightening stops with his exceptionally chilling turn as ruthlessly efficient cleaner Victor Nettoyeur. Kudos are also in order for Thierry Arbogast's glossy widescreen cinematography and Eric Serra's spare moody score. A total knockout.

Reading up about the Cinéma du look movement,I found out that before his collaborations with Liam Neeson, Luc Besson was one of the leaders of the movement.With having heard about the impact that the film had for years,I decided that it was time to meet the original Nikita.The plot:Going with some pals to rob a pharmacy, Nikita gets caught up in a shoot out with the local police. Horrified to see her friends get killed,Nikita kills a cop at point-blank range. Arrested,Nikita ends up getting sentenced to life in jail. Taken by Nikita's anger,the police decide to fake her death.Revealing Nikita's death certificate,the police reveal to Nikita that they have decided to give her a second chance in life,as a secret agent government assassin.View on the film:Sliding along on Eric Serra's ice cool score,writer/director Luc Besson & cinematographer Thierry Arbogast treat the pulpy tale of Nikita to lavish Cinéma du look glamour.Covering the film in neon yellows,lush greens and burning blood reds,Besson and Arbogast turn Nikita into a living comic-book,where the vibrant colours burst on the screen,and glamorous tracking shots place Nikita in comic-book style frames.Keeping a distance from going too in-depth into Nikita's background,the screenplay by Besson cuts Nikita as a razor sharp femme fatal,whose thrust for a drug hit Besson transforms into an assassination hit. Inspired by Film Noir,Besson takes a clinical approach to Nikita's training into being an assassin,that is trapped in a world where doubt/remorse are locked away for a successful "hit", which causes Nikita to question her role as a soulless femme fatale.Gliding in with a real swagger,Jean Reno gives a wonderfully animated performance as Victor "The Cleaner" Nettoyeur,whilst Jeanne Moreau gives the title a graceful touch as Nikita trainer Amanda.Entering the film kicking & screaming, Anne Parillaud gives a powerful performance as Nikita,thanks to Parillaud snarling with a Punk Rock anger over where she has ended up,which Parillaud neatly balances with a calculating side,as Nikita sets her sights on a new hit.