Svelte French beauty Anne Parillaud made her film debut in "L'Hotel de la Plage" (1978) while still in her teens and appeared in several more European movies before aligning herself both on and off the screen with French auteur Alain Delon, acting in his crime dramas ("Pour la Peau d'un flic" 1981 and "Le Battant" 1983). She broke through to international stardom as the punk junkie transformed into a murderous, stylish secret agent in "La Femme Nikita" (1990), the role written for her by Luc Besson, the film's director and Parillaud's companion for several years. When "Nikita" became an art-house hit in the USA, a move to American features was inevitable.