Anne Parillaud

In Nikita (1990), Anne Parillaud looks ill at ease inside the handsome thriller Luc Besson has built around her. Her anger makes its violence uncomfortable, even when the film seems keen for us to enjoy it. She gives the assassin feelings that cannot be put aside whenever there is work to do. We recommend it for her performance, with reservations about the plotting and a romance asked to explain more than it can.

That breakthrough led into international work, though Parillaud has described the typecasting that made other sorts of parts difficult to find. She took the lead as Marie in John Landis's horror-comedy Innocent Blood (1992), then a supporting role as Queen Mother Anne of Austria in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998). The change of genre and the size of a part tell us little on their own. What matters in Nikita is how much feeling she brings to a role that could have settled for convincing violence.

Thierry Arbogast's polished cinematography and Dan Weil's carefully styled production design could easily make Besson's film content with looking dangerous. Parillaud is too abrasive for that. We were moved by the hurt beneath Nikita's aggression, because she lets us see it without making it an excuse for the violence. Besson's writing is less restrained, particularly when it asks the romance to supply a depth it has not earned.

Back in French films, her work with Catherine Breillat brought a different sort of part: Jeanne, a film director, in Sex Is Comedy (2002). That offers a useful departure from the action roles with which she is associated: a woman directing other people's performances. It is the sort of casting we would like to see more of, giving her authority without requiring another assassin. Start with Nikita, but do not take it as the only sort of work she should be doing.