Nikita

The convicted cop-killer is "kidnapped" by a government agency to be given one new chance. Only this time she is to become a trained spy and assassin.

Luc Besson sure know how to fill a film with passion, humanity and action. This is a truly beautiful movie. It is a rather slow movie compared to your typical Hollywood movie, but then again the story and characters are also stronger. You get hooked and the movie is finished before you know it.

The story is strong. It's cool, original and intriguing, yet it's simple and not hard to keep track of. You really get caught up with it. It has elements of all genre. It's got action, love and passion, drama, thriller and even some comedy in it. It's kind of a dark story, yet there are lot of funny elements to light it up a bit. Not much, just as much as it needs.

The actors are great. Anne Parillaud does a great job as Nikita. She makes a psycho-like character that you, in the beginning, don't really like much, but through out the movie her real personality is revealed. At the end you won't let go of her. The rest of the cast is also truly great. Jean Reno has a small, yet very nice part. I found his character really funny. The way he just barge into the story.

Eric Serra has given the movie a nice score. It supports the story, but may seem a little late 80's every now and then, but never the less it sounds good. It is passionate when needed and suspense when called for.

You won't get disappointed of cinematography. It's simply beautiful. You can just sit back and enjoy the shots. Nice contrasts and nice composition and the use of wide angle lenses are really cool. The lightning is good as well. It's all really enjoyable.

This movie has something for everyone. It's not a guy movie or a girl movie. It's not a adult movie or a teenage movie. This is simply a movie for everyone who enjoys good movies! I can, with no doubt, give this movie my recommendations.

Welcome to the world where a woman can handle a gun and be as merciless and seemingly unemotional as any man. The anti- heroine, a woman named Nikita (Anne Parillaud in a performance of her life) is given a reprieve from a death sentence by government agents that want to use her as an undercover assassin. Stylish, ultraviolent, cynical but strangely engrossing - this is a must see for the fans of clever action movies.

Director Luc Besson somehow manages to keep a high level of energy and our interest - from the opening scene – a violent drugstore shootout until the very last moment.

Terrific cast include also Jean-Hughes Anglade (Queen Margot, Killing Zoe), Tcheky Karyo (Kiss of the Dragon, Addicted to Love 1997), Jeanne Moreau - the legend of the French cinema ("Jules and Jim", "Elevator to the Gallows", "Going Places"), and Jean Reno ("Leon", "Ronin")

Don't bother with the American remake (Bridgett Fonda) or TV series with the same title - see only original.

I fell in love with this film from the moment I first saw a brief clip of it on an entertainment program. At first I was drawn to the action elements (being young and somewhat immature in my dramatic tastes), but I was blown away by the romance and character interplay. I loved the composition of the scenes, the noirish lighting, and the quirky humor. This movie, along with Pedro Almodovar's films, really opened my eyes to European films, particularly those with a signature style.

The performances are great across the board. Anne Parillaud plays all facets of Nikita well, from her rebellious, drug-hazed beginning, to her growing confidence, and her near breakdown as her mission falls apart. Tcheky Karyo made a huge impression, mostly through his body language and his eyes. He says more with an expression than most actors do with dialogue. Jeanne Moraeu is a treasure, a truly beautiful woman in appearance and spirit. Jean-Hughues Anglade has the harder part, the "normal" guy who Nikita falls for. He is adept at comedy, but is tender in the love scenes. He carries himself well in his face-off with Bob. Finally, the actor who really stands out in memory, Jean Reno. Reno oozes charisma and talent, even in bad films. He steals the film the moment he enters.

Luc Besson is a tremendous stylist. His films are beautiful, even when the story is a bit obtuse. He is adept at using light to portray and enhance emotion and his compositions are stunning. His main fault is that he lets style overtake story, but he gets away with it because the style is always interesting. He is a fine writer, although more care seems to go into the scripts he directs than those he has written for others.

Finally, one can't discuss the films of Besson without discussing the music of Eric Serra. Serra creates an atmosphere that is much a part of the setting as the lighting or set decoration. His compositions convey mood and emotion, adding another layer to the story. His signature bass and percussion gets your heart pumping during action sequences, while the melodies bring a softness to intimate moments. He demonstrates the proper way to use synthesizers, to transform the music, rather than make up for lack of an orchestra (or talent). Serra's soundtracks were the first that I bought for instrumental music, rather than for pop songs used in the film.

This is a film that appeals to many audiences. There is plenty of action and intrigue for thrillseekers, unique character studies, quirky humor, and above all, romance. It has spawned many imitations (Point of No Return, Black Cat, Nikita TV series) but has never been equaled. If you are a fan of film noir, action/espionage, character drama, or romance, you should see this film; then you should own this film. You'll want to watch it again and again.

Anne Parillaud is phenomenal as a terrifyingly vulnerable, beautiful and human young anti-hero with an incredible talent for violence. A drug-addict murderous teen is given a second chance by a government agency looking to exploit her penchant for conscience-less killing. Mentored by a man whose compassion for her is only matched by his ambition and Machiavellian sadism, Nikita ventures on a roller-coaster ride leading a double-life as assassin and clean-living young woman in love. Her passionate affair with Marco and the clarity of her un-drugged consciousness, combine to promote the development of a conscience - a dangerous thing in her line of work. Nikita is, nevertheless, a victim of her circumstances, and like the rest of the characters on both sides, seems stuck in a very bad situation. In addition to the artistry with which this story is told, this film has a very nihilistic sense of justice and not-so-subtly points out the fact that state authorized murder is still murder.

Jean Reno fans will enjoy his brief typecast cameo as "the cleaner".

This is one of the best, if not the best, of Besson's films. It is extremely well paced, starkly and beautifully shot, and features some of the best acting and writing of the entire action genre. The script is just a little better in French than English. Nikita does not have the feel of an action film, but rather, feels like a fatalistic drama riddled with almost continuous tragedy and heartbreak, and spiced with just a tad of hope. Parillaud's multi-layered and complex construction of her character is so mesmerizing that it is frankly difficult to think of anything else while attempting to reflect on this film.

Luc Besson was on a hot streak in the late 80s/early 90s, and La Femme Nikita (or just Nikita for short) is almost as good as he got at putting his own distinctive stamp on a genre that many auteurs have trouble molding. The spy thriller is great for blockbuster audiences, but to make it into a strong romantic drama is always tricky, as there's the chance for too much one-dimensional theatrics or more attention paid to the plot convolutions than actual human emotions. Nikita squares this problem away just with the protagonist: a young punk (Anne Parillaud, in her most recognizable, near star-making performance) who kills a cop in the midst of a shoot-out is sentenced to life, but then sort of resurrected following the lead of a member of a covert spy organization, and given an ultimatum: become a spy/assassin, or die. She complies, and in a few years time turns into Josephine, who gets orders on the outside from time to time to do tasks like dress up in a maid's outfit to serve potential targets, or to ready herself to kill someone long-range at a moment's notice.

Besson crafts his main story by creating a sort of love triangle between Nikita/Josephine/Marie, her boss Bob, and her conventional lover Marco, a grocery store cashier who doesn't know what she really does. Besson tools with the elements for a much more conventional thriller, and from time to time it could appear like La Femme Nikita will veer into that realm and not return. But Besson is smart; he crafts the first hour like a kind of 'Taming of the Shrew' saga (or 'Taming of a Shrill Bad-ass'), filled with juicy, dark humor ranging from the ultra-violent (pencil in the hand anyone?) to the silly and playful (training with karate instructors). And as pure director of action sequences Besson shows himself as one of the more distinct masters; it's succinctly fresh and tense while holding the ingredients for what mainstream audiences crave, chiefly in that centerpiece as she is told to kill someone on the night of a seemingly hot date with Bob. Even in the little things, like the scene where she watches the spy put together the concoction for the target in the hotel, works on the purest technical terms.

But La Femme Nikita, for the most part, also works on emotional levels too. Besson won't be above throwing in a hard-boiled killer in the midst (Jean Reno's Victor, my favorite supporting character if only for a few pivotal scenes, and a precursor to Leon), but he'll also subvert it just a tinge for good measure. I loved seeing when Josephine has to take out the woman in Venice, her shot in sight, and is moved to tears through the words that Marco speaks to her, truthfully, not in any terms that deem him as the boring "safe" character, but as her kind of salvation from a life that she's been forced into as a final alternative. As happens often in Besson's work, in fact, the female character is put into a realm of personal chaos that is created by or leads to murder and, at the least, harrowing times with the one she cares for or about (i.e. Portman in Leon, Leeloo in Fifth Element, Joan of Arc, even Angela in Angel-A). It's not simply a gimmick in having the character be a woman- it's essential to Besson's track as a filmmaker, and Praillaud is excellent for the sort of ups and downs the character goes through, sometimes in the same scene!

This isn't to say there are a few minor liabilities, if only from my perspective: the music is usually effective in that early electronic-techno beat style for a modern thriller, yet sometimes it's also a cross between a soft-core porn and Weather channel muzak; the ending felt abrupt, or at least on a first viewing (albeit it's hard to top the scene at the ambassador's HQ); and, as a minor criticism, what happened to showing how Nikita learns how to smile? (Seems a little crucial as something of her personality that's skipped over, when made to seem like a big stepping stone by Jeanne Moreau's enigmatic character.) Otherwise, a must-see, and one of Besson's best films.