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hyped garbage

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

LA FEMME NIKITA's overrated. Don't be fooled by style; it's not a good film. The best scene's the opening shout-out (which is over too quickly); it's downhill from there. I saw this at the movies in around 1990 (it was titled 'Nikita' then) and for some reason thought it was okay but looking at it again it's not. It's actually a bit crap. It came out on VHS dubbed in English titled 'Nikita'; even though I'd seen it at the movies I watched it a number of times at home; one time with my dad (who was unimpressed); I remember him saying something about French films being slow; that's right! This movie drags on but worse; it's embarrassing. Whether it's the dubbed in English version 'Nikita' or the restored to French language version named 'La Femme Nikita' (as originally intended) it's at times embarrasingly bad; those flamboyant costumes in the clothes shopping scenes, the cheesy dialogue; the romance and on vacation/gondolier/Venice scenes which play out like a romantic comedy/drama something akin to Julia Roberts in 'Pretty Woman' until there's some action (which os over in a couple of seconds); the best scene was the opening shout-out i.e. the drug store robbery (which should've gone on longer). The story was a good idea. And was it stylish? Sure. Music? Very good. Photography? Tick. But there's an undeserved mystique surrounding this film 'cause it's French. One of the strongest elements is Tcheky Kayro as 'Bob'. Jean Reno's Victor the Cleaner? I preferred the cleaner played by Harvey Keitel in the remake Point of No Return (1993) aka 'The Assassin'.

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.

I watched this film when it first came out, and then watched it again and again analyzing it ad nauseum... to try and learn a thing or two. Yes, it is that good. I like a few other Luc Besson films, but this one is a notch or two above his other creations.Nikita is a story about a drug addicted woman who becomes a government agent, or rather - an assassin.That part of the story is presented really well, and provides more than enough excitement to support the entire film. But what makes this film so good is everything that happens below the surface: complex relationships, unfinished business, never knowing if she will do this or that... yet, none of it feels forced or contrived. It all makes perfect sense.I read some negative reviews here and was wondering if those people even watched this film: their questions almost feel like they should not be allowed in theaters alone. Carefully watching a film such as this one will go a long way toward enjoying it.Perhaps the only "problem" with La Femme Nikita is that it came out at the time when no one knew who Luc Besson was, and with minimal, if any, promotion armchair film-critics found it to be an easy target for unjustified negativity. Too many people are on a lookout for what seems like an easy target for their vitriol, and this film did not come with any big names attached, so they could not pass on the opportunity.The true greatness of this film is best illustrated by the fact that numerous TV shows and a remake or two were made soon after it came out. You know a film is good when other filmmakers are aching to make it again, and they fail to exceed its high standards.The only other real problem with this film may be its subtitles. Since I speak French, I simply listen, rather than read, but a few times that I took a look at subtitles, I was shocked that they were so far off - it felt almost like someone was trying to change the story with their subtitles! If memory serves me well, the original VHS actually had excellent translation as did the theatrical release; but DVD and Bluray suffer from bad English subtitles (maybe Bluray less so? Don't remember any more).All in all, action packed, brutally honest crime drama (yes, governments DO hire former criminals to be their assassins), with a heart. The single most important point of this film is not action but the main character's arc. Enjoy it and discover it yourself.This is one of the finest examples of what French cinema is capable of. Hollywood cannot even come close.

When it comes to spy cinema, Americans generally know it through franchises like James Bond, Mission: Impossible, the Bourne series, and... Spy Kids. Those films generally paint two portraits of the spy life. Either glamorous and exotic, or intense and brutal. Nikita is an interesting film in the genre. While it certainly leans more towards the latter, it's one of the very films in the genre that both shows a realistic depiction of spy life but at the same time, stylizes it. But does Nikita work as a film? Let's find out.The plot follows a teenage junkie by the name of Nikita, who gets arrested one night after partaking in a drug store robbery that goes horribly wrong where she murders a policeman in cold-blood, making her guilty of serving a life sentence. However, the French government fakes a suicide for her to become a spy/assassin.What's interesting about Nikita is its look into the life of a spy. This isn't James Bond, there's no gadgets, no witty one-liners, and no larger-than-life villains. What we have INSTEAD, is a look into a woman being turned by the French government from a teenage junkie to a dangerous killing machine. Nikita is a woman who starts out with no meaning in life as she hangs around with junkies and is addicted to drugs herself but after she's trained to be a spy, she becomes a lethal killing machine but in the meantime, becomes refined, mentally stable, and even attractive. What's interesting about this is the MORALITY. On one hand, she MURDERED a policeman, so she deserves punishment but at the same time, once she gets out of spy school, she cares and appreciates not just for her life, but also for society and towards the END, she ditches her mission and runs away to leave the life of a spy. The film's message can be pretty much be chalked up to "everybody deserves a second chance" and it's delivered beautifully because it's not RAMMED down your throat with lines like "Maybe Nikita, deserves another chance. Maybe, she never deserved this in the first place." which would have dumbed down the entire movie.Outside of the morality behind the film, Nikita is also very stylish. Director Luc Besson directs this film with a strange mix of realism and style but somehow, it works! This movie has its fair share of brutal realism with scenes like "the Cleaner" using acid to melt down the bodies of those he killed or Nikita trying to break out by threatening her supervisor, Bob, at gunpoint but there's also scenes of style such as the speech her instructor, Amande tells about femininity and the means of using it or the scenes of Nikita training comically in spy school. The reason this works is because neither styles go too far, so they end up complimenting each other and creating its own style rather than making for something inconsistent and jarring. The cinematography by Thierry Arbogast is also quite good at creating this gritty, stylized look.But with all that good said, this is not a perfect movie. One of its biggest flaws is the confused timeframe presented in the story. The movie spans over years of Nikita training to become a spy but the way it's edited makes it feel like only a few weeks/months have gone by so when one of the heads of the organization says "Nikita has been training here for six years.", you'll just be left sitting there like "Wait, it's been six years?"Another problem is the character of Marco. He's just really bland and uninteresting throughout. He's supposed to be the man who wins Nikita's heart and make her appreciate life more but the thing is, while he seems like a really nice guy, his interactions with Nikita aren't very interesting. He questions her here and there about things like why she never has friends or family over at her place or why she spends so much time in the bathroom ignoring him but it never amounts to anything more than that. I would've liked to see him actually get MAD at her at one point and have an argument play out, I think that would've been a little more interesting.The last of the major problems is the score by Eric Serra. It just sounds incredibly bland and sterile throughout. There's some scenes in the film where I literally felt like ripping my HAIR out because of how mind-inducingly dull it is. Although, I did like the music when "the Cleaner" was taking care of business.However, those problems aren't NEARLY strong enough to ruin the film because of the excellent cast. Anne Parillaud gives a truly spectacular performance as Nikita. Her change from teenage junkie to refined assassin is very believable and all her conflicting emotions about being a spy feel very real and believable. Tcheky Karyo plays Bob fascinatingly with a polite persona but with an underlying intensity that makes you really think and question his feelings towards Nikita effectively. While I thought his character was a little bland, Jean- Hugues Anglade does the best he can as Marco and remains likable the entire film. Lastly, while "the Cleaner" doesn't get a whole lot of screen time, Reno stands out as a cool and bada$$ character in the film.Overall, while it has some issues regarding the timeframe, the character of Marco, and the score. Nikita is still an interesting character study with stylish direction and an excellent cast. 8/10