La Femme Nikita and the Death of French Cinema

           Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita (1991) was a hit both in France and internationally upon its release in 1991. Despite its box office success and inspiring several iterations in both cinema and television La Femme Nikita (1991) received negative criticism. Expectations on what foreign films or French cinema should be influenced the negative criticism. French films that are distributed via the art house circuit internationally and in the United States have developed a certain reputation bordering on cliché in the decades since the French new wave shook and inspired the film world. Due to commercial considerations films need to classified and grouped. The distribution of French films is no exception. Despite the commercial necessity for being able to group and categorize films it can hurt the perception and reception of films that do not fit in categories or preconceived notions.

          Both for academic study and commercial distribution being able to group and categorize movies is beneficial. Both France and the United States have a long history with the motion picture. Both countries have individuals who can be credited as pioneers of cinema. Names like Thomas Edison and George Melies firmly entrench both countries in the development of the motion picture from attraction and amusement device to storytelling device to one of the most prominent mediums for storytelling consumption in the modern era.

          How do we define French cinema and how is it categorically different from traditional American or Hollywood cinema? How French film is perceived differently from American films is due largely to two factors. One factor is how movies are marketed and distributed both foreign and domestic. The second factor is France’s government subsidizing both French filmmakers and movie theatres that screen foreign and art house films. American films vary greatly but for the purposes of this paper American films will refer to Hollywood productions meant for wide theatrical release. French films that are distributed via the festival and art house circuit both domestically in France and internationally have a narrower audience then American films. Often times these audiences are educated consumers that one could call patrons of the arts. These audiences typically have no issue with films that require audience engagement or that are difficult to watch. An American film meant for a wide release will attempt to be a four quadrant movie. The four quadrants are the four main demographics movie studios want to appeal to in their attempts to have a blockbuster film. These four quadrants are men, woman, those under 25, and those older than 25. If an artist is not concerned with mass consumption they can be more specific in their vision and less compromising. Also it is more likely for filmmakers to make more experimental films and for theatres to specialize as art house theatres if the artists and theatre owners are receiving government support.

          ““La Femme Nikita” is shallow, glitzy, ultra-violent… the kind of foreign-language film that’s tailor made for people who want art and subtitles—the chic of it, the cachet—without the alleged pain or suffering of too many ideas or somber emotions.” (Wilmington 1991). This excerpt from a review from the Los Angeles Times helps highlight how American critics view what is French cinema. Given what French films typically make it to America is this review surprising? After decades of consuming French cinema what was once provocative and cutting edge has become first the norm and then what’s expected. A film like Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) has come to be the cliché of what audiences in America have come to expect from French Cinema. An introspective character study that deals with emotion and psychology with an important historical backdrop that demands the audience to engage with the film to get the most out if it.

          When categorizing film two important distinctions that help clarify the difference between American cinema and French cinema are the terms first and second cinema. First cinema is your typical wide release Hollywood motion picture meant for wide conception. Typically these films employ continuity editing, 3 act structures, and meant to be immersive experiences where the audience suspends their disbelief. Amblin produced films such as Jurassic Park (1993) and E.T. (1982) are excellent examples of this ethos while being well made thoughtful films they are engrossing crowd pleasers. Steven Spielberg and Amblin Productions prove that art can still be accessible and great. Second cinema is films that are either foreign or independent films intended for a limited release. These films tend to screened on the festival circuit or in art house theatres. Because of their limited release these films can be more avant-garde in both craft and story. Films produced during the French new wave became famous for breaking the rules of continuity editing and ignoring the conventions of story structure.

          Tepid & negative reviews when La Femme Nikita (1991) was released were based on preconceived notions of what is and what is not French cinema. “Brainy French directors used to be acclaimed for elevating the look and structure of a movie over the content. But Besson’s ambitions are frankly commercial. He takes the “formalist” noodlings of an earlier generation of filmmakers and turns them into pop hooks, pumping up an absurdist thriller with lots of stylishly abstract atmosphere.” (Gleiberman 1991). Conventions and preconceived notions about the rules of visual storytelling are what the French new wave was rebelling against. Breaking the fourth wall and jump cuts must have been just as startling to movie goers and critics watching French films in the early 60’s as the intelligentsia was when they saw La Femme Nikita (1991) during its initial theatrical release.

          When one says I’m going to screen a French film to an American movie goer in 1991 a stylized, fast pace, action/spy film with a female lead isn’t what they would have guessed. During the French new wave it was commonplace for filmmakers to use pulp fiction like hardboiled detective stories as source material. One can draw a straight line from Luc Besson’s deconstruction of the action film in La Femme Nikita (1991) to what French filmmakers did decades earlier with film noir. French cinema has a long tradition of synthesizing and deconstructing American genres and motifs like gangster movies, film noir, and thrillers. Noted French filmmakers like Jean Pierre Melville and Francois Truffaut drew influence from American culture and genre literature & films. In 1991 an action movie with a female lead that passes the Bechtel test was not common place. La Femme Nikita (1991) is in the canon of French cinema because it deconstructs the action/spy genre by making the lead a strong female who by the conclusion takes agency over her future.

          La Femme Nikita (1991) has high production value and stylized editing that many associate with Hollywood. A French film that displays well crafted production values especially in the action scenes shouldn’t be seen as a negative. Shooting action well is an underrated craft in filmmaking. A kinetic action sequence can be like a violent ballet in the hands of filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and John Woo. Action sequences are pure cinema with a lineage that can be traced back to the use of the slap stick and montage in silent film.

          The last decade of the twentieth century and the early twenty first century has seen the rise of the “international” filmmaker. This can be attributed to the growth of formal film education, home video, and the internet. Every year it becomes easier to share movies digitally and films that were once only seen by historians and preservationist can be viewed by the general populace via the internet or any one of the myriad of home movie mediums. Directors like Quentin Tarantino, Luc Besson, Bong Joon-ho, and Neil Blomkamp cinematic styles are less defined by the places they grew up but by the global genre films they consumed. It’s becoming harder to say a director has an Italian style or a Hong Kong style. La Femme Nikita (1991) was unfairly treated because Luc Besson was criticized by critics who said his style looks more American then French. Cinema has a cyclical nature of influence regarding American and foreign films. American film noir and pulp fiction influences the French new wave. The French new wave inspires the first generation of American film school directors like Coppola, Spielberg, and Scorsese. The Hollywood blockbuster influences Luc Besson and the snake continues to eat its own tail. “Besson may be the nearest French equivalent to the post-‘70s “movie brats”. He’s no thinker and he’s weak with character, he tends to ridicule or ignore literature, yet he works powerfully with the raw elements of movie-making.” (Wilmington 1991). The Los Angeles Times may not hold La Femme Nikita (1991) in as high esteem as I do but Mr. Hal Hinson does shares my observation of Luc Besson’s influences.

          The box office success of La Femme Nikita (1991) led to an American remake Point of No Return (1993) starring Danny Elfman’s better half Bridget Fonda. Despite being a shot for shot remake Point of No Return (1993) is the inferior film. The lack of success of Point of No Return (1993) both critically and financially shows La Femme Nikita (1991) is not another cliché action film that Hollywood churned during the 80’s and 90’s starring actors like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

          Do foreign films have to be ubiquitous with art house cinema? Visual storytelling is a versatile art form because it can be accessible and easy to understand and can be complex and demanding. Somewhere along the line complex and demanding became conflated with being superior to more accessible films. In the worlds of science and math the pinnacle achievement is finding simple and elegant answers to complex questions. Luc Besson was punished for having a stylized action packed film with a simple but emotionally powerful story. French cinema has always been stylized and emotionally powerful character driven films.

          The most powerful stories tend to be the simple ones recited over the centuries. The loner strolling into town to set right what has gone wrong or the farm boy finding his true destiny is to save the kingdom. “He seems to like playing off the generic, though he probably thinks of it as working with mythic, the classic. His sense of the mythic, though, is too impersonal to strike any deeper chords.” (Hinson 1991). Hal Hinson’s reductionist observation fails to realize that just because something is accessible it does not mean it is impersonal. Sometimes the most personal things are also the most relatable to audiences. Basic emotions like love and loss are cultural universals. If raw true emotion is expressed in such a manner that it is still fun and accessible to mass audience is it any less valid art then something esoteric that is only understood and appreciated by academics and intellectuals?  

          La Femme Nikita (1991) is the film that introduced Luc Besson to mainstream movie audiences around the world. Alfred Hitchcock said, “If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.” Luc Besson makes such a film with La Femme Nikita (1991) that is both well crafted and strong visual storytelling. It is an emotional, thrilling, feminist, action film that is truly a piece of French cinema. Long live French cinema, viva la France!  

 Works Cited

Gleiberman, Owen. "La Femme Nikita." Entertainment Weekly , April 5, 1991: 2.

Hinson, Hal. "'La Femme Nikita'." The Washington Post, April 4, 1991: 2.

Wilmington, Michael. "Movie Review: 'Nikita': French Thriller With Feminine Twist." Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1991: 1.