Artur Hernandez

Minutes

February 18^th

1. Since we had a home work to do on a French film “La Femme Nikita” that we viewed on the 16^th of February and answer questions, the period began with the class dividing into the groups and discussing questions and answers and see other replies to certain questions.

      I combined my responses with some of the responses from other individuals and decided to put the best responses in here.

      For the 1^st question on why Luc Besson combined Femme and Nikita. Name Nikita comes from the Russian name that is actually stands for a male name. Maybe the director came up with this name because her job in the movie and what she was doing was actually considered to be a man’s job.  Word Femme stands for Femininity on the actual character, during the movie she had to learn how to do and act and look as a real true woman, intelligent and beautiful. The title also seems to contradict the violent assignments that the state gives Nikita, implying perhaps some criticism of state sanctioned killing.

    On the second and third questions Venice and New Orleans are both cities of romance and visited by a lot of tourists and just married couples. Also New Orleans has a French background where the movie Nikita is French, this might be the other reason director chose this city in American remake.   Both cities also are known as places of masquerade and intrigue, two themes important to the movie.

     With the fourth question everybody came out with pretty close same answers. Jeanne Moreau has been playing roles in the movies since yearly 50’s, she became an international symbol, was considered to be one of the most beautiful actresses during those times, so she was perfect for the role of Nikita’s teacher to teach her being intelligent and be all the woman she can be.

       When answering question five, everyone agreed that big guns and explosions are so much like Hollywood in this movie, but yet the personal level of the character stayed. European cinema often concentrates on a personality of the characters, shows their emotions, where Hollywood concentrates more on what character is doing, the more he jumps, the more he shoots the more he fights the tougher she/he is. Even in the Movie “the Point of no return”, Bridget Fonda just had to kick some guys, she just had to jump of the stairs and yet look so innocent without even a scratch on her body. She must be T-1000 from The Terminator.

        On the last question everybody also agreed that the movie would lose the whole meaning if the main character was played by a man. The female role attracted the audience it is not common to see a female as a professional assassin.  Also the contradiction of feminitity and violence would be lost.

2. After 20 minutes of group discussion, Mr. Reimer quickly went over the questions and answers on this film.

3. In the last 30 minutes of class we viewed the Hollywood remake of Nikita the movie called “The Point of No Return” We witnessed the differences in the restaurant scene, and lots of small details that made me see on which director made a better meaning and a whole set to the movie. I am not going to go on to many details (since I am writing a paper on these 2 movies). Ill just bring one example: the part when they just approached the table in the film “Nikita” and when the actor Tcheky Karyo (her trainer) sat in front of her, to keep the distance away from her but also be able to look straight in her face.  The two scenes also illustrate the titles of the films, in Nikita, the woman seems more vulnerable, isolated running down a corridor, hemmed in between a stove and the edge of the screen, etc.  In Point, the woman jumps, runs toward the camera, has more room to maneuver in the kitchen, etc. 

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