La Femme Anna

‘Anna’ is the latest film from French director, writer and producer Luc Besson, famous for his action-packed and stylish (though utterly disposable) action and sci-fi films.  I’m sure many of you know some of his work without introduction, and whether you like him or not we have to admit he’s one of the most prolific and successful genre filmmakers of our time.

 

My first introduction to Luc Besson was his breakthrough (La Femme) ‘Nikita’ way back in 1990 starring Anne Parillaud, about a delinquent teenage girl who’s “reformed” by the system to serve society by becoming a secret agent and assassin for the government.  So interesting was the concept of an easy-on-the-eyes kick-ass femme fatale at the time that the movie was remade for the American audience in Bridget Fonda’s ‘Point of No Return’ and adapted twice on TV (three if we count ‘Alias’).  It is perhaps unsurprising then that Besson returned to his roots in ‘Anna,’ his latest action-packed and twist-filled reboot of LFN starring Russian model-turned-actress Sasha Luss as a sleek and deadly Russian KGB wet work specialist who sought to work her way to freedom.

 

‘Anna’ proves once again that there is perhaps no better filmmaker working today (or ever, period) in objectifying, I mean depicting strong, sexy women who kick ass and look good while doing it.  The way Luss’s Anna swept through a restaurant full of macho men like a Victoria Secret angel (of death) is sheer balletic poetry in motion, even if the logical parts of our brains scream out at how unlikely it is that the willowy Anna can overcome men many times her weight in brutal, no-holds-barred hand-to-hand combat.

Grade: A