ABSTRACT
Nikita was Besson’s thank-you film to his audiences for saving Le Grand bleu (1988) from oblivion. Nikita was released in a shroud of secrecy (much like Le Grand bleu). Besson wanted to privilege his public, not the journalists. Thus, he argued that the film should go out on general release and not be premiered for special audiences such as the film critics. 1 This attitude did not endear him to a great majority of the reviewers, who reproached him for playing guru (‘porte-parole’) to the youth audience. 2 However, as before, his new film was a great success with audiences (it netted a 3.7 million audience in France alone, 3 million in the USA). 3
