Nikita (DVD)

I do watch non-French films, honest. I just prefer the atmospherics, the lighting, the stylised sumptuousness of French drama. Nikita is no exception. This came out in 1990, and the director and writer of the screenplay is the wonderful Luc Besson (also The Big Blue, The Fifth Element, Leon, and others). The plot is a compelling and engaging thriller, which goes a-something like this… The film opens with a group of young drug addicts marching through the midnight streets, bathed in the almost blue-tinged glow of street lights that are reflected in the damp road and the puddles. This is a gritty, unpleasant, and barbaric world, as is shown in ...  Read the complete review

Nikita is an early film from Luc Besson, who has since moved onto major Hollywood productions, including Léon and The Fifth Element among others (less said about Jeanne d'Arc/Joan of Arc the better though). I've been a fan of Luc Besson's directing skills for years, and Nikita is one of the first of his films that I saw (leant to me by my A-level French teacher, no less). It probably remains the one I like best, too. At the age of 19, Nikita (played by Anne Parillaud) is a drug addict and child of the streets. Representing a generation with an uncertain future, she has no control in her life, and is running wild. Along with a couple of friends, she ...  Read the complete review

This, the French La Femme Nikita, directed by Luc Besson, is one of the strangest, most bizarre, yet psychologically truest movies ever made. The story on the surface is absurd and something you'd expect from a grade `B' international intrigue thriller. Anne Parillaud plays Nikita, a bitter, drug-dependent, unsocialized child of the streets who is faster than a kung fu fighter and packs more punch than a Mike Tyson bite. She's killed some people and is given a choice between death and becoming an assassin for the French government. This premise should lead to the usual action/adventure yarn, with lots of fists flying, guns going off, people jumping ...  Read the complete review

Luc Besson is, it is far to say - a fairly well-known director/producer. The film that he is best known for would be "Leon", but while this America-based english language film is far more accessible, the film is far, far less visually stylish and less involving than the superior "Nikita". The best thing I can say about "Nikita" is that it is the stock film I use to convert friends to watching subtitled movies. The plot is a laughable one on the surface - but thanks to the acting, the cinematography and the characters themselves, when you watch "Nikita" you don't even notice. Starting as always with a long, ...  Read the complete review

Do not be put off by the fact that this movie is French and screened solely in the French language. Some people never watch a foreign film because of the subtitles and as a result miss out on some of the best movies ever made. The French are one nation who consistently produce great movies which are only in French and never to be dubbed. Nikita is one of these from the early 1990's and has been much copied in Hollywood since its release and spawned a watchable but nondescript tv series entitled 'La Femme Nikita'. It tells the story of a street girl who is arrested by the police for the commission of a murder but is given the chance to escape life ...  Read the complete review