Nikita
1990 · Directed by Luc Besson
Original language: French
- action
- thriller
The story
A beautiful felon, sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a policeman, is given a second chance – as a secret political assassin controlled by the government.
What it’s like
Hard cuts and kinetic handheld bursts give way to cool, sculpted stillness in Luc Besson's 1990 thriller, shot in grainy, slightly washed 35mm with a palette of cold fluorescent blues, sodium-orange streetlight, and the bruised pink of Paris dusk. Its training-facility scenes are severe and clinical, all white corridors and hard overhead light, while the quieter passages drift into softer domestic warmth, lamplit rooms and rain-streaked windows. The score leans on synth pulses and melancholy piano that swell at moments of violence and then fall away into near silence. Gunfire is sudden and sharp rather than gory, with bodies falling offscreen more often than not. The emotional register is wistful and bittersweet, following a volatile young woman slowly learning to feel again within a cage of obligation. The pacing alternates tense stillness with abrupt action, so it suits a late-night watch alone, for viewers who like stylish, moody crime drama with a romantic undertow and can tolerate a steady current of dread and brief, abrupt violence.
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