In the Blood

It is the shining accomplishment of Gallic actress Anne Parillaud to portray those two most questionable commodities—the characters she plays are French and violent—in such a way as to make them highly appealing. In the title role of last year's La Femme Nikita (currently being remade in English, starring Bridget Fonda), Parillaud played a ruthless assassin for a topsecret, C.1 .A.-like government agency; in the recently released Innocent Blood, she made her American debut as Marie, a modern-day vampire who tangles with a group of mobsters in Pittsburgh. "I think violence is very subjective, " says the fiery gamine, who won France's Cesar Award for Nikita. "What is violent to one person isn't to another. " Indeed, this sensitivity to the nuances of molestation is borne out in Marie's actions. She likes to sink her fangs into the necks of only those who she feels deserve to die: yet another French innovation in the world of dining.

HENRY ALFORD