Nikita (1990) – Film Review

Director: Luc Besson
Cast: Anne Parillaud, Marc Duret, Patrick Fontana
Certificate: 18

By Sarah Morgan

Whether you love or loathe Luc Besson’s films, you have to admit they always look good.

After all, this is the man who brought us The Fifth Element, The Big Blue, Subway and, best of all, Leon: The Professional.

The star of the last on that list, Jean Reno, has a small role in Nikita too, a movie that has had a longer shelf life than much of Besson’s work because it’s spawned two TV spin-offs, La Femme Nikita, which ran from 1997 to 2001, and the later Nikita (2010-2013).

Although both proved popular, neither captured the raw energy of the big-screen original, which is largely created by Besson’s camerawork and the strong yet sensitive and vulnerable central performance by his then-wife, Anne Parrilaud.

“Violent tomboy”

She plays the title character, a drug-addled, violent tomboy whose life is changed forever by a heist gone wrong. Her fellow thieves are killed while raiding a drugstore owned by a friend’s parents, and she is sentenced to spend the rest of her days behind bars after killing a police officer.

However, the mysterious Bob spots something within her, and soon, after the authorities have faked her death, he takes her under his wing, turning Nikita into a skilled government assassin.

She seems to embrace her new life, and even falls in love with supermarket worker Marco before entering into a period of domestic normality, despite the fact she can never tell her lover about her day job.

However, after a mission goes horribly wrong, Marco figures it all out, leading to another life-altering moment.

“Impressive”

Besson wrote the part for Parillaud, who apparently couldn’t be less like Nikita if she tried; she’s a glasses-wearing intellectual, rather than an ‘act now, think later’ physical presence. However, she’s so good at the role that it’s hard to imagine her as any other kind of character.

The supporting cast is pretty impressive too. As well as the aforementioned Reno, French film icon Jeanne Moreau pops up as the woman entrusted with giving Nikita a makeover, while Jean-Hugues Anglad is Marco and Tcheky Karyo, who you may recognise from the British TV series The Missing, Baptiste and Boat Story, plays Bob.

Some may accuse Besson of favouring style over substance. But I feel he strikes a better balance between the two here than he has with other entries on his CV. So if you like visually arresting films with bite, this is for you.