Must See French Film - La Femme Nikita

A slick, psycho-romantic thriller. Nikita (Anne Parillaudis) is young and pretty, but has already gone to the bad. During a hold up of a pharmacy (drug store) with her drug-crazed criminal gang, she deliberately kills a policemen, coldly shooting him in the face at point blank range . She is condemned to prison for life, but the French secret services, looking for cold blooded killers, have identified the potential in her. They offer her an alternative future. If she proves herself, she could become a secret agent herself. She accepts and starts a hard apprenticeship. Her death is faked. She finds herself part of a secret government program that takes no-hopers like her, and turns them into professional assassins. She learns not only to kill - not so difficult for her - but also to think and behave like a lady. Trained by Bob, she becomes a different person. After three years, she is ready to leave the training facility and live an apparently ordinary life until the government needs her. By the time her first real test arrives, we are pretty much on her side, as she is now leading a normal life and has fallen in love with a gentle humorous man.
This is one of the best transformation movies ever - the ultimate in character development. Anne Parillaudis brilliantly portrays feral hostility in the early scenes, and her transformation into a new person is entirely credible. It is a joy watching an immoral street wretch gradually awaken to become an attractive accomplished woman. It is also a surprisingly touching movie - one of the best of Besson's films. It is finely paced and beautifully shot, with some of the best acting and writing of the genre. The script too is exellent.

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