Nikita (1990)

I had seen Anne Parillaud in Pour la peau d'un flic and Le battant, where she played a feminine girl in both - and her later role as Queen Anne in Man in The Iron Mask; so I was very impressed with her as Nikita, especially in the court room scene where she screamed and kicked some policeman.

Nikita is a junkie who has brutally killed a policeman in a robbery. After a fake death penalty, she wakes up and is told that she is recruited by the government as an assassin. Not sure why the government think that she has potential. If you see her in the beginning of the movie, you would have thought that she deserved to die. After years of training, Nikita starts her new life and falls in love with an guy. She is not an ordinary girl, though.

Nikita, before and after.

Nikita in the beginning is a wild girl and seems incorrigible. I would say that when she killed the policeman and attacked her interrogator, she was under some drug. After she is recruited, she attacks her mentor, Uncle Bob, with a chair. Perhaps she is angry then, feels she is robbed. Interesting that this girl, who is capable to do violent things, is afraid to die. She agrees to be trained after Bob threatens to send her to her proper place: the tomb.

The final test for Nikita before being sent out of the training center is the best thing in the movie. We can see at this point that there is something between Nikita and Bob. She is so happy knowing he takes her dining out in a fancy restaurant, and how disappointed she becomes when she finds out that he only takes her out for a mission. And again, another disappointment, when she finds out that the only way out Bob has told her, the little window, has been blocked.

After several missions, Nikita gets depressed. Years in the training center has cleared her brain and she is not as rebellious as before. She wants to quit and has a normal life, but she cannot for she has been bought. Legally, she belongs to the cemetery: dead and buried. The last mission goes wrong ( Jean Reno as The Cleaner is cool!), and the ending shows Nikita disappears from the life of 2 guys who love her and whom she loves.

Amazing to know that this movie was made 20 years ago. Actions and story are great. I prefer this than From Paris With Love, which Luc Bresson also wrote (but not directed).