Main Cast: Peta Wilson, Roy Dupuis, Eugene Robert Glazer, Alberta Watson, Matthew Ferguson
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 60 minutes
Plot
Premiering January 13, 1997, on the USA network, the hour-long espionage series La Femme Nikita was based on the 1990 French film of the same name -- or, to be more accurate, it was based on the 1993 American remake, Point of No Return. Peta Wilson starred as Nikita, a convicted criminal serving a life sentence for killing a cop. Problem was, Nikita was innocent; she had been framed for the murder. Unexpectedly sprung from prison by the covert government anti-terrorist organization Section One, Nikita was given a choice by the mysterious sections chief (Eugene Robert Glazer), whose name was Paul L. Wolfe but who was known as "Operations": work for us as a spy or rot in jail. Upon agreeing to these terms, Nikita was informed that she would be "canceled" (read: killed) if she ever refused an order or betrayed Section One. Trained in all aspects of self-defense, and outfitted with an arsenal of state-of-the-art weapons, Nikita embarked on a crusade against worldwide terrorism -- often using tactics that were as vicious and sadistic as those of the people she was tracking down. Dispatching Nikita on her various assignments were Michael Samuelle (Roy Dupuis), who became her lover as well as her mentor; Madeline (Alberta Watson), a ruthless master strategist; Walter (Don Francks), taciturn weapons expert; and computer whizzes Seymour Birkoff (Matthew Ferguson) and Kate Quinn (Cindy Dolenc). Adding an extra dimension to the series' derring-do was the fact that Nikita could trust absolutely no one, not even her closest associates -- who in turn, deeply mistrusted one another (and for very good reason!). La Femme Nikita ran for five seasons and 96 episodes, the last one filmed in 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
La Femme Nikita: Season 01 La Femme Nikita: Season 02 La Femme Nikita: Brainwash La Femme Nikita: Charity La Femme Nikita: Choice La Femme Nikita: Escape La Femme Nikita: Friend La Femme Nikita: Gambit La Femme Nikita: Gray La Femme Nikita: Innocent La Femme Nikita: Love La Femme Nikita: Mercy La Femme Nikita: Missing La Femme Nikita: Mother La Femme Nikita: Nikita La Femme Nikita: Noise La Femme Nikita: Obsessed La Femme Nikita: Recruit La Femme Nikita: Rescue La Femme Nikita: Season 03 La Femme Nikita: Season 04 La Femme Nikita: Season 05 La Femme Nikita: Simone La Femme Nikita: Treason La Femme Nikita: Verdict La Femme Nikita: Voices La Femme Nikita: War
Main Cast: Anne Parillaud, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Tchéky Karyo, Jeanne Moreau, Jean Reno
Release Year: 1990
Country: IT/FR
Run Time: 117 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The serpentine plotline of Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita begins its 117-minute slither when punkish, psychotic, and drug-ridden Nikita (Anne Parillaud) fires her gun into a cop's face following the stick-up of a drug store, and is promptly imprisoned. She is thrown into a dank cell, then injected with a substance and told it is a lethal toxin. Instead of dying, however, the comes to in an all-white interrogation room, where French intelligence officer Bob (Tchéky Karyo), informs her that an alternate to execution exists: she can receive covert government training as an assassin. She accepts the bid, is rigorously trained, and later returns to society as a seemingly normal and gentle civilian, but falls in love with a drugstore employee while she's waiting for that first government assignment. The paradoxical concept of a young woman blossoming socially while carrying out cold-blooded murders was downplayed when La Femme Nikita was remade in America as the silly and disappointing Point of No Return, directed by John Badham with Bridget Fonda in the lead. A far less sociopathic TV-series version of La Femme Nikita surfaced on the USA cable network in early 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Nikita (renamed "La Femme Nikita" for the U.S.) is writer/director Luc Besson's rhythmic, ultra-stylish, and gleefully ridiculous 1990 hit movie. A mixture of Pygmalion, Diva, and one of John Woo's choreographed action pictures, the film was one of a subgenre of action pictures to emerge in the 1990s, characterized by tongue-in-cheek stylistics and a hip, film noir-ish sensibility. Anne Parillaud, Besson's wife at the time, gives the film a sullen, acrimonious seriousness often missing in American films of this same type (i.e. Killing Zoe, The Long Kiss Goodnight). Nikita was remade in Hollywood as Point of No Return with Bridget Fonda and in Hong Kong as Black Cat; the film also spawned an American cable-television show called La Femme Nikita. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Nikita Taylor (Anne Parillaud) is a teenage delinquent and heroin addict who participates in robbing the pharmacy of the parents of a fellow junkie. The robbery goes awry, degenerating to a gunfight with local police during which her cohorts are killed. Suffering severe withdrawal symptoms, she shoots a policeman. Nikita is arrested, tried, convicted of murder, and imprisoned for life, with parole considered after thirty years.
In prison, she is drugged to simulate a death sentence; she awakens in a nondescript room. A well-dressed, hard man (Tchéky Karyo) enters and reveals that, although officially dead and buried after suicide by overdose, she is in custody of the DGSE, the French intelligence agency. She is given a choice: work as a DGSE assassin or be killed. After some resistance, she chooses the former and proves to be a talented killer. One of her trainers, Amande (Jeanne Moreau), transforms her from grimy gutter trash to femme fatale; Amande was also rescued and recruited by the DGSE.
Her initiation mission, killing a diplomat in a crowded restaurant and escaping back to the Centre, is the film's highlight; she is graduated and begins life as a sleeper agent in Paris with her boyfriend (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a man she meets in a supermarket and who knows nothing of her real profession.
Her assassin's career continues well, until an embassy document-theft goes awry, requiring the ruthless participation of 'Victor: The Cleaner' (Jean Reno) in destroying the mission's evidence and all corpses; The Cleaner is wounded and dies; Nikita abandons the Agency, the city of Paris, and her supermarket cashier boyfriend.
Critical and public reception
Nikita received relatively poor reviews by critics both in France[2] and abroad. However, it has been acclaimed worldwide by the general public. This trend can be seen for example on Metacritic where the overall rating by the critics is 56% and the one by the users is 77%[3]
However, a number of critics, including Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, positively reviewed the film.[4][5] Critics and viewers noted Luc Besson's Gallic inversion of Hollywood and Hong Kong action film conventions, emphasizing the killer's humanity.
