La Femme Nikita

 I just heard that they were going to do another remake of La Femme Nikita (the CW network, October, 2011). The concept of the series was based on the book, Nikita, which inspired both the original series and it's many film and TV copies.

Having missed a good part of the original series when it was broadcast, and noting it was often referred to in production discussions, I bought the original, five-year series and reviewed it.

I was amazed at how that series had anticipated technology. The technical elements hold up amazingly well over the decades since it was filmed. In fact, some are still valid and even credible promises for the future. 

1. The series introduced a highly condensed style of writing dialogue. The approach was, don't say it if you can show it or the audience can figure it out.

Every unnecessary word was removed from the dialogue, which meant that things could move much faster on the screen. Editing decisions coupled with fleeting expressions from actors often suggested content and story.

In short, the audience was responsible for putting things together, either based on what was suggested by the action, or concepts that were part of past episodes.

2. Second, La Femme Nikita introduced realistic approaches to series cinematography, which were then copied by other TV series. Available light photography, rather new for the time, was used to provide a new level of realism.  One of the directors (who presumably was in the appropriate union) did some of his own cinematography.

3. Having a female action lead was a relatively new idea at the time. As we noted in Module 5, the success this TV series was widely credited to Peta Wilson, an inexperienced female lead at the time who helped break new ground for women. Nikita was a gutsy and highly demanding role. The fact that Wilson insisted on doing most of her own stunts added considerable credibility to the role.

4. Not mentioned in Module 5 was the dark, untrusting and often depressing environment that pervaded almost every element of the La Femme Nikita stories.  

Some people have noted, that although exaggerated, the series reminds them of a modern-day, highly competitive work place. In La Femme Nikita this was taken to a life-and-death level where you could trust no one at any time, even those who were supposedly your friends.

5. Finally, the series routinely grappled with complex and vexing moral issues for which there was no easy answer.

In the spy word of La Femme Nikita associates or even friends were expendable (and often expended), and anything or any means justified the ends. The series painted a chilling and unsettling spy world. I'll admit I fast-forwarded over the many torture scenes used to extract information -- although as we saw in 24, a significant part of the audience apparently and inexplicably likes to see that.

The ideas in the original La Femme Nikita TV series may be "old hat" now (they were widely copied), but they represented relatively new concepts at the time.

As I write this we have yet to see how the CW Network version does, but for people who saw the original series, Peta Wilson is Nikita and after the five years the series ran, we are stuck with the image of that blond, blue-eyed, gutsy and tortured woman that we saw week after week. Although the new Nikita looks nothing like her, maybe it's time for a younger generation to get a new idea of Nikita.

-Ron Whittaker

To Blog Index

© 2000-2012, All Rights Reserved