La Femme Nikita

The serpentine plotline of Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita begins its 117-minute slither when punkish Nikita (Anne Parillaud) kills a cop and is sentenced to death. On the brink of execution, she is "saved" by French intelligence officer Bob (Tchéky Karyo). With the government's blessing, Bob lovingly coaches Nikita in the proper social graces — and also tutors her in the subtle art of political assassination. The paradoxical concept of a young woman blossoming socially while carrying out cold-blooded murders was downplayed when La Femme Nikita was remade in America as Point of No Return, with Bridget Fonda in the lead. A far less sociopathic TV-series version of La Femme Nikita surfaced on the USA cable network in early 1997. — Hal Erickson