Nikita.

Nikita.

A brilliant and pleasurable piece of nonsense from the great visual stylist of French cinema. Nikita (1990), now over twenty years old, still manages to provide a diverting couple of hours of action, humour and entertainment that has not dated one bit. Luc Besson’s Franco-Italian high-octane thriller involves a nihilistic punk whose life revolves around crime, drugs and violence. During a robbery of a chemist owned by the father of one of raiders Nikita kills a policeman. She is arrested and sentenced to death by lethal injection. When she awakes she thinks she has gone to heaven but is actually in a secret government institution that have faked her death with the intention of training her to be a deadly assassin for the French authorities.

Jean Reno gives a new meaning to an acid trip!

The ex Mrs. Besson Anne Parillaud plays what is probably her most famous role as the 1990’s version of Stieg Larssons Lisbeth Salander, Nikita. Turkish born French actor Tcheky Karyo is Bob the man that is tasked with training our slender heroine and famous French actor Jean-Hughes Anglade plays Marco the man who unknowingly falls in love with a female assassin. The most memorable role is the cameo played by regular Besson collaborator Jean Reno as Victor ‘The Cleaner” a larger than life Besson character. Well worth a revisit.

The original poster.

In There Sleep

Writer and directors Caroline and Eric du Potet debut film In There Sleep (2010) is a wee gem that should be seen. This cracking French thriller completely holds your attention for its 86 minute running time. It features Anne Parillaud (Sex is Comedy 2010) as Sarah who following her teenage sons’ horrendous fatal accident is now living on her own and having problems coping with life. One night returning from her late shift at the hospital where she works accidently runs down a young lad who suddenly appears from a road side forest, Arthur tells Sarah that he is being pursued by a mysterious assailant who he claims is chasing him because he witnessed a burglary. Sarah takes pity on the lad who just happens to be the same age as her deceased son and offers him shelter although all is not what it first appears to be. A film that messes with your head but in a most entertaining way.