La Femme Nikita

UK Release Date. 12 October 1990
Certification. 18
Running Time. 1 hour 57 mins
Director. Luc Besson
Cast. Jean-Hugues Anglade, Tchéky Karyo, Jeanne Moreau, Anne Parillaud, Jean Reno.

Rating. 75%

Review.

Whist the revered French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard once said, "All you need for a movie is a girl and a gun" it was his fellow compatriot, the visionary Luc Besson who realised that 'a girl with a gun' was even better. Perhaps somewhat simplistic, but both refer to the two elements necessary to make a crowd-pleasing film - action and sex.

It's easy to lose sight of the fact that La Femme Nikita is one of the most influential action movies of the last 35 years. There have been numerous imitations and iterations since, but Luc Besson's stylish La Femme Nikita really got the ball rolling on the whole female assassin sub-genre and gave rise to the trope of women being forced into becoming professional killers after being orphaned or mistreated in some manner. The lineage includes the likes of The Long Kiss Goodnight, Domino, Salt, Red Sparrow, Colombiana, Sucker Punch, Atomic Blonde and The Old Guard. 

Besson's film plays on the concept of the femme fatal archetype, and at the time of release the director's hyper-violent take on Pygmalion felt like something new. It helped enormously that Anne Parillaud was excellent in the tile role, morphing Nikita from a feral drug-addled street urchin who can't stand the thought of domestication and refinement to ultra-chic assassin for the French Secret Service.

With its high impact action sequences, emotional intensity and character-driven drama, La Femme Nikita set a bar so high that few in the sub-genre have subsequently reached. It's both stylish and grim, thrilling and contemplative and the film bravely concludes on a dramatically satisfying character note rather than an explosive, action-oriented climax.