Ce qu'il faut savoir sur la série Nikita

La série s'inspire largement du film imaginé et réalisé en 1990 par Luc Besson, «Nikita», dans lequel Anne Parillaud défendait le rôle-titre. Dans ce long métrage, l'actrice française campe une héroïnomane qui a été arrêtée après un vol à main armée ayant mal tourné et qu'on a ensuite obligée à travailler pour les services secrets.

Peta Wilson, qui tient le rôle de Nikita dans la série télévisée, est harcelée par un policier qui exerce sur elle un affreux chantage. Elle est injustement condamnée pour le meurtre de cet homme de loi et se voit récupérée par une organisation gouvernementale secrète baptisée Section Un, qui entend profiter de ses talents de. .. tueuse. «On croit qu'elle est passablement douée sur ce plan-là», de dire Opérations, celui qui deviendra son patron et que l'on ne connaît que sous ce nom de code. En fait, étant donné que Nikita est victime d'une erreur judiciaire, elle n'a pas nécessairement le profil de l'emploi. Mais, avec l'aide des données qui leur ont été remises, les experts de la logistique et de l'informatique en sont arrivés à la conclusion «qu'elle est parfaite pour ce qui l'attend». De toute manière, Nikita n'a pas le choix: la Section Un, qui a fait croire à son suicide, la liquidera froidement si elle n'obéit pas aux ordres.

Coincée dans un engrenage

Il appartiendra aux spécialistes de la Section Un de former Nikita afin qu'elle puisse remplir les missions qui l'attendent. Elle travaillera sous les ordres d'Opérations, le patron de la boîte, et avec un quatuor d'élite formé de la stratège Madeline, de l'informaticien Birkoff, du concepteur Walter et du responsable des missions Michael.

Alors que Madeline lui apprend à se servir de la séduction pour arriver à ses fins - ainsi, Nikita découvre ce qu'il faut porter et, surtout, quand et comment le porter -, Michael supervise son travail de guerrière: il lui enseigne le maniement des armes et les arts martiaux. Son but? En faire une professionnelle sur qui on peut compter: «La Section Un est une chaîne, et un seul maillon défectueux compromet toute la chaîne», cherche à lui faire comprendre Opérations. Nikita doit considérer son nouveau métier comme un travail ordinaire, rien de plus... Pour son propre bien, elle devra donc apprendre à oublier chaque jour les événements dont elle a été témoin ou qu'elle a elle-même provoqués la veille.

Au fil des épisodes, un lien de plus en plus étroit et une certaine tension amoureuse s'installeront inévitablement entre Nikita et son maître, Michael. C'est à Opérations et à Madeline que revient le soin de rappeler aux deux agents que les sentiments n'ont pas leur place dans une organisation comme la Section Un. Mais y parviendront-ils?

La super-héroïne du nouveau millénaire

Pour Joel Surnow, le créateur de la télé-série, le succès de «Nikita» s'explique certainement en grande partie par la force incroyable des personnages et par la qualité soutenue de l'écriture et des effets spéciaux. Le fait que Nikita soit la première super-héroïne de la télévision contribue aussi sans aucun doute à expliquer les cotes d'écoute élevées.

«L'agent secret Pepper Anderson qu'incarnait Angie Dickinson dans Police Woman pendant les années 70, note Joel Surnow, était avant tout une femme de tête. Nikita, pour sa part, est essentiellement une femme d'action, comme l'est le personnage qu'a incarné Linda Hamilton dans The Terminator, et celui qu'a interprété Sigourney Weaver dans L'étranger: le huitième passager (Alien). Nikita apprend à utiliser son corps comme un instrument qui peut la sortir de toutes les impasses et à se servir de sa beauté comme d'une arme dont elle maîtrisera vite le maniement. Nikita est la super-héroïne du nouveau millénaire.»

La télé-série a été tournée à Toronto, et chacun des épisodes, qui dure une heure, a coûté 1,9$ million. Au cours d'une émission, on présente une histoire originale truffée de rebondissements, de corps-à-corps, de poursuites et de chassés-croisés de toutes sortes. «Tout est mis en oeuvre pour que le téléspectateur soit littéralement rivé à son siège», confesse M. Surnow. Il ajoute que le personnage de Nikita est idéal pour la télévision: «Le cinéma privilégie l'action, et c'est grâce à celle-ci qu'on comprend la psychologie des personnages. La télévision, elle, montre directement ce que les gens sont vraiment. La télésérie «Nikita» est un heureux mélange d'action et de psychologie. En dépit des zones d'ombre qu'il comporte, le personnage principal est tout aussi fascinant qu'attachant. Le public ne se lasse jamais du «bon» qui a un passé de «méchant».

Un pari difficile à gagner

Joel Surnow, qui a été associé au succès de la série policière Miami (Miami Vice) pendant les années 80, constate que ses scénaristes ont gagné le pari: ils ont su faire accepter au public américain le concept de l'espionnage international. «En général, le public téléphile nord-américain, dit-il, n'aime pas les actions compliquées qui se déroulent aux quatre coins du monde. Il veut savoir dès le début de l'émission qui sont les bons et qui sont les méchants. Dès qu'on tombe dans des intrigues à la John Le Carré (un écrivain britannique qui a connu un grand succès grâce à ses romans d'espionnage au cours des dernières décennies), on se tire dans le pied...»

Pour entourer Nikita, M. Surnow a choisi des personnages très forts..........................

PAR RAYMOND PELLETIER

 

 

 

23 mars 2015 Le site Internet TVwise annonce aujourd’hui le décès de la comédienne Alberta Watson, samedi dernier, à l'âge de 60 ans.Si l’actrice avait une belle carrière, elle avait surtout brillé par ses seconds rôles. Les fans de séries connaissaient en effet Alberta Watson pour son rôle de Erin Driscoll, la boss de Jack Bauer, dans la saison 4 de la série 24 heures Chrono ou encore pour celui de Madeline dans la série La Femme Nikita (1997 et 2001). Dernièrement, elle jouait dans la saison 2 de la série Nikita.

 

 

 

L'acteur, chanteur et musicien de jazz canadien Don Francks est décédé le 3 avril 2016 à l'âge de 84 ans.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:

Extrait d'un article de 12 pages (-1 manquante) d

Magazine 7 Jours / Spécial Nikita 

«I'm scared shitless». «I'm a frightened person». When Peta Wilson, who plays the lead role of the couture-clad, reluctant assassin on the USA Network's sole cult hit «La Femme Nikita» expresses the preceding sentiments to me on the Toronto set of her show, I don't beleieve her. It is hard to, given Wilson's towering 5'11" frame and baleful «this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you, but it's still going to hurt you» gaze. Nonetheless, she's quick to emphasize the disparity between her on-screen demeanor and her own person­ality. «Scary movies scare me», she says in a rapid, raucous throaty Australian honk, a world away from her character's trademark enun­ciation, which tends to be pitched somewhere between a whisper and a threat. «When people get upset that scares me».

When we meet a week later for dinner in New York, she's reconsidered, loudly declaring: «Those things that make you frightened are what's standing in your way of being happy. Nothing real­ly scares me. I've faced my fears, embraced them and got over them».

Cleansed of all inhibitions, Wilson is one of those rare indi­viduals who takes big bites out of life and laughs with zest and pleasure as the juices cascade down her chin. Effusive, gregarious and endlessly tactile, she will hurl herself bodily - versatile, snow­white locks flying - into any potential interpersonal connection, free-associate her way through labyrinthine conversational catacombs (most of which she'll suffix with a shrug of either, «but then, I'm Australian» or «but then, I'm a Scorpio»), and dispense bone-crush­ing bear hugs and stinging ass-slaps at the slightest provocation.

Though it's bracing to get intimately acquainted with such a sexy free spirit, you also have to factor in the inescapable moments when she will: 1. Burst spontaneously into song (Estimated Time of Occurrence 10.54pm); 2. Grab your hand and yank you up on to the table, insisting you dance with her, while surrounding patrons look on and applaud (ETO 12.10am); and 3. Demand that you link arms while drinking (ETO 12.47am). None of which is to imply that Peta Wilson is anything less than a powerhouse of a woman, just that her outsize allocation of energy is a daunting proposition to someone accustomed to picking at a strained and pureed version of life. As we exit the restaurant, I flinch away from an affectionate head-lock. «You're frightened of me», she says, accusingly. I deny it, but she looks like she doesn't believe me.

A  similar  disbelief  has  festered  for  many  years  in  Hollywood.

Audiences won't shell out to see the Action Babe, is the conven­tional wisdom. They find her intimidating. Unfeminine. Butch. Even in the not-so-distant past, when the Giant Action Smash-Up was the most profitable and acceptable of all genres, and movies featuring guys who couldn't order a meal in English but could execute a spinning kick that would send an arms dealer crashing through a window on the 32nd floor were acclaimed by the unde­manding, no one clamored for a female equivalent.

Every attempt to establish an action heroine met with deri­sion and empty seats. Sigourney Weaver in the Alien series and Linda Hamilton in T2 hit the mark but both grew from their roles rather than starring in customized vehicles. The fates of Giant Action efforts tailored for Geena Davis (The Long Kiss Goodnight), Sharon Stone (The Quick And The Dead), Pamela Anderson (Barb Wire), Jamie Lee Curtis (Blue Steel), Lori Petty (Tank Girl), Cindy Crawford (Fair Game) and Bridget Fonda (Point Of No Return, the failed first attempt to Americanize Nikita), tell the real story.

Yet if moviegoers afforded the Action Babe a chilly reception, the same has never been true in TV land. In the 60s, Honey West, The Avengers' Emma Peel and Mission: Impossible's Cinammon Carter held sway. The 70s ushered in Charlie's Angels, Lindsay Wagner's The Bionic Woman and Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman. Though the 80s were devoid of iconic examples, over the past couple of years a trio of series spotlighting complicated women possessed of lethal hands and feet have been embraced by those members of the couchbound public active enough to bestow cult status on a show.

The heroines of Xena, Warrior Princess, Buffy The Vampire Slay­er and «La Femme Nikita» are not only characters fully enough realised to prevent their shows degenerating into the spectacles of humil­iation they could well have been, but also embodiments of a new breed of action star. Xena, an avowed standard-bearer for right ­eousness, is perpetually plagued by her genocidal tendencies. The petulant Buffy deals wearily with her vocation like a piano prodi­gy forced to practise scales when she'd rather be dating. Then there's Nikita, the covert killing machine who wanders the corridors of Section One, the super-secret upper government department that sprung her from prison in a state of hushed paranoid wonderment like a temp on her first day in a malign corporation.

Wilson says: «In movies, it's very hard in two hours to get that combination of action and drama. On TV, there's action every week but the emotional development of the characters is constantly growing. People get hooked.»

Wilson is aware both that the small screen has become a sanctuary for the Action Babe and that she and her high-kicking sorority are redefining the stereotype. «I'm not playing Schwarzenegger with a handbag. When you're a woman taking on big bad guys, that's frightening. Nikita's a hired killer but there's always that element of fear that she could die».

Initially a style-strangled combination of The Prisoner, Mission: Impossible and a vintage Calvin Klein Obsession ad, the TV Nikita has succeeded in making a virtue of its excesses. The pregnant paus­es, meaningful glances and deadpan enunciation that once induced chortles gradually became the series' signature. «That was always the style but it took a while for people to get it», says Wilson. «On American television, other than The X-Files and NYPD Blue, they talk a lot of crap. People's concentration levels are so low. They watch TV so much, how do you keep them interested in a show where the style is different and the characters are ambiguous?»

The untamed intensity Wilson brings to the role is a prime attention-grabber. While she doesn't say that no American actress could match her mixture of the visceral and the vulnerable, she dismisses Nikita movie predecessor Bridget Fonda with a curt wave of her hand. She's scarcely more generous to the Livs, Gwyneths and Umas: «They're just so...» She adopts a trail, cower, timorous posture. «They don't have that...» Words once more failing her, she balls her fists and emits an antagonistic snarl.

American actors don't get off lightly, either: «They're all such pretty boys. Where are all the real men?» Of course, a pretty boy plays an integral part in Nikita's constituency. Endless speculation fills the show's multitude of Internet fan pages concerning the snail's-pace development of the love that dare not speak its name between Nikita and her mentor/tormentor/fetish Michael (played by Quebecois actor Roy Dupuis), who turns in a performance so inert it's virtually still life. Says Wilson: «He's a man of few words and movements. Consequently, I've got to keep asking myself "why the hell is she attracted to him?" It's a bit S&M.»
 

«We  made  our  love  scene  like  a  fight  scene  and  our  fight  scene  like  a  love  scene» 

This most complicated of potential couplings is defined when Nikita (it's not the sort of show where anyone ever thaws out suf­ficiently to call her Nikki) escapes from Section One and then de­cides she wants back in. To help her fake her abduction and return to HQ without arousing undue suspicion, Michael does her the favor of beating her bloody. «We made our love scene like a fight scene and our fight scene like a love scene», says Wilson with relish.

Born in Sydney, Australia in 1970, Peta Gia Wilson and younger brother Rob were uprooted by the demands of their Army offi­cer father Darcey's profession and relocated to New Guinea. Deal­ing with constant displacement (the family would move another dozen times before she turned 13) bred in her a vivid imagina­tion which sparked an ambition. «When I was nine years old I saw Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and I said, "I want to be like Jeff Bridges". That's when I started to dream about being an actress».

She never pursued this yearning in Australia but did achieve a modicum of recognition as the youngest player in the national netball squad. Her stature, carriage and those locks led to a mod­eling career, dismissed now with a curt, «it wasn't full-time». It did, however, last long enough to cause her to become anorexic. In 1978, her weight dropped from 140 to 110 pounds.

After growing out of both modeling and vomiting, Wilson moved to Los Angeles in 1991. Three months later, she met and moved in with writer/director Damian Harris, son of Irish actor Richard Harris. The ego problems that might occur in a relation­ship between actress and director have failed to lessen the pair's bond. «I really appreciate and respect what he does, as he does me. I think part of the reason we fell in love is the creative abilities that we have. That's attractive».

Wilson spent the next six years studying acting under a pro­tege of theater legend Stella Adler and consuming as much Ten­nessee Williams as humanly possible. Then she prepared to strike out for New York and look for stage work. «That's when my agent called and said, "can't you do TV?" I said, "what the fuck? My per­sonality on telly?" It won't fit!» Nonetheless, she turned up for the audition for Nikita, snatched a basketball from a casting director's hands, bounced it off the walls, then sat down and charmed the pants off the assembled executives. She was instantly offered the part.

«When I started I was like, "holy Hell, what am I doing?" I come from the theater. But now I've learned the techniques, it's harder to do than some fantastic play. There are so many things you've got to think about, like when the commercial break's coming».

Wilson has a haunted look that sets her apart from most TV actresses. I describe it as Nordic, almost Viking. She sets me straight. «Nordic? I think it's the Scot in me. Scottish girls are fair. I was going to dye my hair dark then I thought, blondes were very strong. Mae West, Bette Davis. Things changed, now there's this stereotype of what a blonde-haired girl is. I don't know how that happened». Marilyn Monroe, I offer. «So you take what Marilyn Monroe had, add this oomph and you've got this other thing. Maybe that's the Australian in me. I think Australians are the modern-day Vikings».

Though she is tied to Nikita for three more years, movie offers are coming Wilson's way. She talks about developing an action movie she'll be ready to play when she turns 35 (she's 27 now), but is otherwise cautious. «The next choice I make is going to be some­thing that feeds me creatively. I'm already getting exposure so it's not necessary to do a movie for exposure unless I wanted to blast myself into some kind of fucking place where I didn't have a life which I don't want to do. I've been offered a bit of money, too, but it's like, well, what do you need? I'm making a nice living».

Nice enough to indulge a growing jones for vintage cars («I've got a 56 T-Bird, a 58 Chevrolet Impala Convertible and a 38 Dodge»), but, apparently, not yet anywhere near the level where a distorted view of reality sets in. Back at the Nikita set, she'd said: «At any moment, you know, this wave that I'm riding like a surf­board rider is going to crash and I'd better be ready for the fuck­ing tumble-turn that's going to happen. I know at any point it could finish and you'll be like, «who the fuck was Peta Wilson?»

So saying, she left to film the last scene of the final episode of the second season. Her closing sentence: «I'm not afraid».

Oh no, it is not by chance that I wish to linger over Madeline's character, sublimely played by the very great and beautiful Alberta Watson, but - something that should not escape anyone - because of its many similarities with Michael's one (to whom this blog is mainly dedicated): the likeness between them is such that its absolutely deserves a whole chapter. The differences are negligible, but striking.
 

In case a «Mystery Award» had to be given and if we had to determine wich one of them is the most intriguing and most disconcerting, the jury would surely take upon itself a difficult task. From beginning to end, Michael and Madeline will in fact remain a real enigma, an eternal big question mark: a rule from wich they will never depart.
 

To study Madeline's facial expression or gaze is as fascinating as trying to solve the secret of Michael's thoughts: same closed «iron gates», same way of protecting themselves against any violation of their privacy, same manner of concealing and repressing their feelings while letting pass just a litlle touch of their deep-down agitation or pain, a fragment of response, approval or dissatisfaction. Same jet of water and fire that freezes you, confuses you or inflames you according to circumstances. Same inquisitive «steel and velvet» gaze whose only the colour of their eyes makes the difference, Madeline's dark brown one giving her more harshness.

Both are perfect in their second in command role: same devotion, same discretion, same great skill, same manner of manipulating and supervising behind the scenes. Same impassibility, same pragmatism, same rigour, same mathematical precision, same engaging... and falsely conciliatory intonation!
 

Same «flavour», same «savour», same «spice»...  Same angelic sweetness, same diabolical intelligence, same phlegmatic appearence, same strategic patience; the same «subtle combination of opposites, contrasts and contradictions»... Same enchantering voice, same elegance, same polite  attitude, same wisdom, same iced charm. Same delightful coktail to be tasted...

We can easily say that Michael is the male Madeline's counterpart: handsome, graceful, stylish, cerebral type, perspicacious, composed, invariable tone, nerves of steel...
 

Both are shrewd and outstanding operators ruling in the art of seeing the blows coming, of anticipating and parrying them with lightning speed: they are so identically shaped and so similar that they inevitably cann't do anything else than challenging and distrusting each other, than trying to outdo each other in inventiveness and know-how.
 

Each exchange or confrontation takes on an air of duel, of competition and silent manipulation. Their life is a perpetual contest of «crafty tactics», coldness, insensitivity... and «mechanization»... Michael’s most magnetic gaze against most Madeline’s enigmatic smile! Two people as attractive and disturbing who clearly cultivate a paradoxical way of being: both are «shining» and «dominating» mainly thanks to... their self-effacement and their plasticity, thanks to the immobility of the eyes, face and body! No sign of a facial movement, of an eyelids blinking which could betray the slightest emotion... Not a single word: «speech is silver, silence is golden».
 

Same predispositions: reserve, restraint, Olympian calm, unchangeable mood. Same «top of their class» at school... a training death school! Both are able to be obnoxious. Both enjoy flair, self-control and assurance wich will never them failed. Same manner also of evading answers or of answering without a word, of putting people ill at ease or unable to distinguish truth from falsehood, of sowing a seed of doubt in their mind... Same talent for «giving you the impression» that... of being... of having something... even though you are not supposed to know, to be or to have...

What  about  their  differences?

Their years of experience. Time and events that formed Madeline's profile and made her invulnerable. A complete and successfully «dehumanization process». She is «the» perfect «finished product», while in return, even if he is a «top-of-the-range product», Michael is still «under construction», on the way to completion...
 

Between Michael and Madeline, the lady is indubitably the most fearsome character, because she reached the highest level of «impenetrability» and is now coming very close to cruelty... but never to an act of  madness or to a thoughtless gesture.
 

As everyone in Section One, she learned the job to her cost; she could finally make a clean sweep of her memories - obviously painful -, and get used to the idea that, from then on, she will live only for her work... To such a point that she even could resist love... and also resist Operations's advances... so that she could use him just occasionally for her own pleasure. A result that has absolutely to be got with Michael and Nikita...


But while Madeline finally resigned herself to her fate and swore loyalty to Operations, to whom she reported everything, Michael, although being docile and disciplined, on the other hand will always remain profoundly ungovernable. His strength? Go it alone and stay secretive, for better or for worse.


If Michael and Madeline have opted for a similar attitude, in return, they differently base their own power. While Michael is charming you thanks to his strength and his brightness, to the beauty and the intrinsic life of his look, to the strange blend of placidness and gravity of his expression, to his pacifying or sometimes sharp way of «whispering» instead of speaking in a loud voice, Madeline, for her part, in addition to the dangerousness of her black glance, is disconcerting you thanks to her delicate mellow tones and to the perfidy of her engaging smile: a cleverly mixture of affability and Machiavellianism, of serenity and harshness, of threats and support..., everything constantly fluctuating between understanding and implacability, between tact and sly aggression. Now sprinkle «the whole package» with a veil of  melancholy, irony and bitterness... and you will get our Madeline!


A gorgeous Madeline/Alberta Watson, because as imperturbable and hard to be decrypted asMichael. Their complexity makes their analysis inescapable. And both their presence into Section One is indispensable.
 

But  also...

An extremely proud and haughty Madeline whose style and refined beauty has no other equal than the Michael's sensuality and catlike beauty!

"The style management is on the way to professionnalization and nothing was left to chance,  starting with one's face, hairstyle and make-up" (quote)
 

Although being in sharp contrast with the stunning, blonde, wild and always colorful Nikita, the dark and foggy Madeline is equally amazing and very attractive. Despite of her austere role and her sartorial simplicity, it's impossible to deny the evidence: her feminity passes through the screen! So much that we would like to smell a scent of her perfume, of the flowers she surrounds herself with..., if only we could. Her great artless female presence, without any jewels, accessories or plunging neckline, makes her stand out, naturally, like a vanilla fragrance... Madeline is the perfect portrayal of beauty in the simplicity.
 

Woman of influence, high society woman and woman through and through, Madeline distinguishes herself as well by her intellectual refinement as by her class, her deportment and her propriety. No strong language, never raise her voice, no inappropriate gesture. An exterior appearance in perfect harmony with her inner balance.
 

Loved or hated, Madeline is a character who, nonetheless, remains an outstanding example of good taste, dignity and courage. A queen of the night who, as long as she lives and breathes, will respect the rules she established and dictated to others. To her dying day, she did her job and did it well.
 

Bye bye Madeline, we really enjoyed!


© Michèle Brunel  (Cet article est protégé par  ).

This translation, done all by myself, is a personal tribute to my second favourite character in the La Femme Nikita show and to the kindest actress I could virtually meet in my life.