La Femme Nikita
“There are two things that are infinite: femininity and means to take advantage of it."
La Femme Nikita is a 1990 French-language action thriller film written and directed by <PERSON> which follows a teen criminal who is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering policemen during an armed pharmacy robbery. Her government handlers fake her death and recruit her as a professional assassin. After intense training, she starts a career as a killer, where she struggles to balance her work with her personal life. 285
She shows talent at this and her career progresses until a mission in an embassy goes awry.
Finally checking out this classic after seeing the fun but Americanised remake Point of No Return a few years back and this was very interesting.
In many ways, this film and Point of No Return are similar, with that later film repeating many scenes verbatim but La Femme Nikita is also very much its own beast, owing much to French New Wave.
It’s slow, methodical and more a labyrinthine character piece than the remake, which ends up a typical action film rather than the mood piece this is.
People who go in expecting explosive action are bound to be disappointed but <PERSON>, though a monster in real life, crafts a surprisingly interesting look on a woman who spends her life defined by men. It also looks and sounds great, with striking cinematography and a wonderful <PERSON> score.
<PERSON> is our lead and is simply magnificent, delivering a powerful and subtle turn and unlike in the remake, I actually liked her romance with <PERSON>, who gets some strong moments here. Likewise, <PERSON> and a small appearance from <PERSON> helps to round out a solid cast.
On the whole, La Femme Nikita is sleek, stylish and sexy, but also much different than other adaptations may lead you to believe. Apparently the Hong Kong CAT III film Black Cat is an unofficial remake so I guess I need to check that one out too. 657