teb@stat.Berkeley.EDU (Thomas E. Billings) (04/08/91)
LA FEMME NIKITA
A film review by Thomas E. Billings
Copyright 1991 Thomas E. Billings
Synopsis:
Nikita, a violent young woman with a drug problem, is sent to prison.
There she is recruited by an unnamed French intelligence agency, and
given a new life, and a new job -- as an assassin for the (French)
government! A violent drama that varies from unbelievable to gripping.
Overall, a very good movie.
France (English subtitles), color, 1990, approx. 118 minutes.
Director/Writer: Luc Besson
Nikita is a 19-year old woman with serious problems. She is a
junkie and a thief. One day she and her friends are robbing a drugstore
to get drugs. Things go wrong; the police arrive and a bloody shootout
follows. The ultimate result of this is that Nikita ends up in prison,
serving a life sentence.
Nikita is deliberately given a drug "overdose" by prison officials
and she officially "dies." Nikita awakens from her "death" to find she
is being held by French Intelligence officials. She has a choice: work
for the government as an assassin, or go back to her grave -- this time
for good. This begins Nikita's new life, working for the government.
After a lengthy training period, the story continues as Nikita is
returned to the outside world to begin her work as a killer; but is she
actually ready for life on the outside again? Can she have a personal
life, while working as an assassin?
Given the storyline of the film, I was concerned that it might turn
into a "woman exploited by big, bad guys" story. Although you do have
some sympathy for Nikita by the end of the picture, you won't forget her
depiction from the first part of the picture: a hateful, drug-addicted,
young woman who is prone to acts of uncontrollable, extreme violence,
and who kills without hesitation. The film does not glamorize, or
victimize Nikita. Instead, Nikita is the "victim" of her own violent
actions, and her own wrong choices in life.
The production values of the film are high, and some of the acting
is very good. The actress who portrays Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is
excellent. However, some of the things that happen in the film seem
rather unbelievable. For example, the way some of the covert activities
are accomplished is dubious; one would think that an assassination for
political purposes would be thoroughly planned (to avoid risk of
discovery) and would not have any last-minute uncertainties. These
complaints are minor, however, and do not distract from the action or
enjoyment of the film.
Overall, I thought the film was very good (certainly worth
considering), because of its interesting story line and the fact that
it does not glamorize Nikita. One caution: the film is very violent.
Distribution. Scheduled to open Friday, 4/5, in San Francisco (AMC
Kabuki 8 Cinema); in its first U.S. release. U.S. distributor: The
Samuel Goldwyn Company.
Reviewer contact: teb@stat.Berkeley.EDUMark.Kosten@latrobe.edu.au (Mark Kosten) (04/19/91)
LA FEMME NIKITA
A film review by Mark Kosten
Copyright 1991 Mark Kosten
Director: Luc Besson
Producer: Jerome Chalou
Music by: Eric Serra
Starring: Anne Parillaud, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Tcheky Karyo, Jeanne Moreau
A French-Italian co-production. 1990.
French with English subtitles.
France's Luc Besson is well known for his films LE DERNIER COMBAT
(THE LAST BATTLE), SUBWAY, and THE BIG BLUE, which are stylish and
somewhat surreal. However, along with some other directors of similar
stylish films, such as Ridley Scott, Kathryn Bigelow, David Lynch and
Michael Mann, he sometimes has a problem with scripts that let down the
images. There tends to be a lack of substance, which is illuminated by
the contrast with the production values and attention to detail and
imagery. Does this film close the gap?
Besson's wife, Anne Parillaud, plays a teenage street punk called
Nikita, who is spaced out on drugs and in with a group that are equally
spaced out and very violent. They break into a chemist [drugstore for
Americans] and are surprised in the act of stealing drugs by the owner
and the police. Basically everyone dies in a hail of bullets except
Nikita, who is dragged off to jail. She is shown to be extremely
violent and irrational, which gets her life imprisonment. The French
secret service (who knows which group it is supposed to be, perhaps La
Securite?) recruit her by staging her death then offering her either
life as an assassin for France or a real death to fill the empty grave
her family grieved over. You can guess which she takes.
The rest of the story revolves around her training, acceptance of
her situation, and finally, after three years, release into the world as
a government-sanctioned killer. She "comes out" as a smart, beautiful,
deadly woman, who knows little of living in the real world.
Nevertheless, with the aid of what has become her surrogate father (her
boss in the secret service) and a man she eventually becomes engaged to,
she slowly fills in the gaps of compassion, feeling and love. However,
as she carries out her "hits," each mission gets more and more
difficult, messy and violent.
Without wanting to spoil the story or ending, I must say the whole
thing is a bit far-fetched in detail and the ending even more so.
There is no real resolution, and the denouement, such as it is, is
particularly weak. Indeed, the story is light on the Pygmalion-like
personal changes Nikita goes through and her relationship with her
boyfriend is rather unbelievable, although it is touching. The idea of
her being an assassin has a curious veracity, and France has been shown
to use women in hazardous missions -- witness the Rainbow Warrior
bombing in New Zealand, so fortunately we are left only with a taste of
silliness.
Besson uses some of his "mafia," such as electronic composer Eric
Serra and actor Jean Reno as a "cleaner", a very black comedic role.
They and the other cast and production people perform well, with not a
step wrong. Technically Hollywood couldn't do better.
France has made some excellent thrillers over the years. DIVA
comes to mind, made by Besson's compatriot Beineix, but let's not forget
Clouzot's WAGES OF FEAR or LA BALANCE by America's expatriot Bob Swaim
and many others. This film compares favourably, but is not quite
intricate or involving enough to quite make it to the top few.
Nevertheless, it stands out from much of the dross today, and I
recommend a look, as you will at least enjoy the ride, if not the
mulling over afterwards.
Mark Kosten, phone: +61 3 479-1500
Computer Centre, AARNet (internet): ccmk@lure.latrobe.edu.au
La Trobe University, X.25 (PSI): 05052347300000::ccmk
Bundoora, 3083
Australialeeper@mtgzy.att.com (Mark R. Leeper) (04/19/91)
LA FEMME NIKITA
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: This is a French sub-titled film for
people who would never go to a French sub-titled film. That
is the up-side. The down-side is that it does not provide
very much for people who would see a French sub-titled film.
This is violent adventure fluff similar to less respected
American films. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4).
This sort of plot has been done many times before in American films.
Most notably, it was done in the film REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
based on the "Destroyer" books of Murphy and Sapir. Some super-secret
government agency wants to create an assassin without a background so they
start with someone whom the world thinks is dead, but who is not really.
Maybe they even arrange the purported death, and then they train this
"zombie" to be their agent. Nobody misses the person; nobody can trace the
person either. That story told competently, but without too much in the way
of new twists, is the currently playing French film LA FEMME NIKITA.
The film opens with four French punks breaking into a pharmacy to steal
drugs for one of them, a nineteen-year-old woman who is clearly in a bad
way. The robbery goes wrong for just about everyone involved: the owner of
the pharmacy, the police that he calls, and the would-be robbers. Three of
the punks are killed and only the young addict survives. She identifies
herself to the arresting police as Nikita. This Nikita is not just bad
news--she is deadly to anyone around her. The record later said that this
woman committed suicide by an overdose of tranquilizers, but she is in fact
administered them by injection and they are not lethal. Then begins the
process of turning her from a sociopathic killer into a controlled weapon.
While LA FEMME NIKITA is playing mostly in art theaters, it is not an
art film any more than DIE HARD was. This is a slick, light-weight, high-
violence adventure film. Much like REMO WILLIAMS, the story of the training
of the human weapon takes about half of the film and it is by far the best
half. In both films the actual missions that the character is assigned are
rather shallow and silly exercises. One mission seems to be only a make-
work project where the organization has done everything but actually pull
the trigger and sends Nikita (at great expense) to pull the trigger herself.
It is not that Nikita is so great a marksperson since the shot seems an easy
one. Nor is it professionally done, since she leaves the gun barrel out a
window for about five minutes while she waits for her orders. Nor is it
that she is still untraceable, since by this point she has a reasonably
permanent new identity. The whole sequence is there only to add some comedy
and a little more action to the film.
LA FEMME NIKITA stands as testimony that English-language film makers
do not have the patent on silly action-adventure. This one is a likable
see-once-and-forget sort of film. My rating: +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzy!leeper
leeper@mtgzy.att.com