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.
