Take Flight

All the excitement over B13 – Ultimatum got us thinking about the first Banlieue 13 released in 2004. We went through our archives and quickly realized that we only had one of the two main chase scenes in the film in our MisterParkour.com library! So, without any further ado, here is the highly underrated and underappreciated second chase scene from Banlieue 13 featuring David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli. This sequence, although relatively simpler than the most famous sequence of the film (seen here), is as good as, if not better in some ways than, its predecessor. Although the talent and magnitude of the performance of the scene can only be fully appreciated upon multiple viewings in slow motion, David displays a raw athleticism in his jumps and movements that make this scene breathtaking and inspiring. Featuring some classic moves from Cyril as well, this scene was a fantastic way to bring Banlieue 13 to its cinematic climax.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-934981575675541728

The behind the scenes look at Banlieue 13 – Ultimatum concludes with this look at the last day of filming. In addition a SWAT team like assault with a hummer assisted brake in, this featurette also includes some of the most exciting clips from previous episodes; clips that are also sure to encompass the most exhilarating and breathtaking moments of the film. If you missed any of the action make sure to go thorough the archives of MisterParkour.com to check it all out. In addition to that you only have to wait for a little over a month for the cinematic release of the movie scheduled for February 18^th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrQHa-_1ycoa

After not appearing since Episode 7, David Belle has returned from his hiatus from the behind the scenes features of B13 – Ultimatum! And what a return it is! This time he and Cyril are doing a jump so big so that the crew had to implement safety equipment. Whether, though, David would actually need the cardboard landing zone to do the jump is still being debated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z04VVhIevmk

What are the capabilities of the human body in terms of absorbing impact? In Parkour this is a very important question because it sets the physical limits with which Tracers can perform. Regardless of what you think those limits are, Ruslan Dzavadov has been working hard to redefine the common perception of the human capability, and he shows it off well with this huge jumped he performed in Tai Pei, Taiwan. Members of the international Parkour community will debate whether movements like these can be repeated frequently without injury, however, at MisterParkour.com we firmly believe that with the proper training the necessary physical tools develop to make moves like this very sustainable indeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oW5lfugzfc

The best two Parkour-featuring commercials of all time are left in our Top 10 Parkour Commercial Countdown. Both of the final two ads are so good that it was almost painful to have to decide between them. Fortunately for us our criteria did the tough job or rating them, and we now have the pleasure of revealing the seconds greatest Parkour commercial ever made.

We can not say enough about the #2 commercial so we are going to keep it simple. As one of the first Parkour-featuring commercials ever produced this ad was also one of the most culturally influential. Filmed in London, this production exclusively features David Belle, and in one jump showcased a level of athleticism that literally made people’s mouth’s drop around the world as they were exposed to Parkour for the first time. The jump, featured at 1:08 in this commercial and also featured from multiple angles in David’s On Avance Toujours…Et Vous? video, is one of the most famous Parkour jumps of all time and demonstrates a degree of performance that has arguably not been duplicated in any Parkour commercial production since.

The magnitude of this commercial in influence and sheer athletic performance may never be matched again, and that is why it is so highly ranked in our countdown. Enjoy the close runner up to the greatest Parkour-featuring commercial of all time, this 2001 BBC ad featuring David Belle comes in at #2.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7827611100816947689

Featured here is another European news report from Focus TV. It is not in English which is especially unfortunate because this report features some very unique footage. Not only does it have Guy Janodet, it also has Jérôme Lebret who comments on David Belle’s fall at UCLA. One other unique aspect of this news report is that it showcases Sébastien Foucan practicing his performance for Madonna’s Confessions tour.* In a repetitive nature you will also recognize clips from Casino Royale, and old footage of Austrian Tracer Andreas Kalteis from the first Focus TV Report we posted a couple months ago.

The more time goes by the more abundant news reports on Parkour are becoming. In order to attain our goal of being “A succinct compendium of the most relevant and important Parkour videos, articles, and information…” we do our best to include all of these reports on MisterParkour.com. Unfortunately the content of these news reports is routinely repetitive and therefore frequently boring. For that reason, when posting a news report like this (although this one on the contrary is no so repetitive) we will do our best to augment the footage with more information such as a correlating video or possibly a relevant interview or article. This time we have decided to include Madonna’s music video Jump* in this post since clips of it are featured in the news report. The music video is an important milestone for Parkour history because it was the first prominent music video in the U.S. to feature Parkour.

Finally, with the last four days of posts referencing Sébastien Foucan you may be wondering were our commitment to David has been. Although sometimes we deviate from posts featuring David in order to have a collective representation of the Parkour world, we never stray far from him or his ideology. Over the next three days we will be posting three phenomenal videos of David (two of them are very rare), as we make a final run to reach our 50^th David Belle post on the site.

*Note: David’s opinion on Madonna using Parkour on her tour and in her music video is straight forward and does not express a negative or positive view. He says, “I simply think she uses Parkour to sell her music, not her music to promote Parkour.” To read that interview between David and Lina Manso in its entirety please click here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE43uvihqis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPqOVdDUqL4

Three years after the success of the 2003 Jump London documentary ignited the Parkour movement in Britain, the film was followed by its sequel Jump Britain. Even more riveting than its predecessor, the Jump Britain documentary took Parkour to the next level by exploring 9 locations across Britain’s four countries of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England. This film brought back Sébastien Foucan from the Jump London film and introduced a wide mix of London based “Freerunners” including predominantly showcasing a few of the core members of Urban Freeflow.

Not only does Jump Britain bring Parkour to monumental locations in Britain, the film also takes a couple Urban Freeflow members back to the birthplace of Parkour (Lisses, France) where they are shown around by Sébastien himself. Sébastien can also be seen wearing Nikes which is a rare occasion given his most recent associations.

The criticisms we have of this film involve its misrepresentations of Parkour. First of all there is no mention of David Belle in the entire 49 minute documentary. This is obviously a problem. If you’re going to make a documentary about Parkour you need to at least mention David even if he doesn’t perform for you. Second, the film freely uses the words “Parkour” “Freerunning” and “The Art of Movement” interchangeable. Granted, even David says that these are all the same discipline (New Yorker Festival), but he has also expressed on many occasions the differences between Parkour movements and those that constitute an “extension of the art.” No attempt to explain this difference is made in this film. If someone did not know anything about Parkour and then watched this documentary it is feasible to expect their definition of Parkour to be, “Running around the city and having fun by jumping off stuff.” This is obviously not the original intentions of the discipline as passed down to David from his father. Lastly, Urban Freeflow promotes Sébastien Foucan as the “head ambassador” of Parkour. This is also fallacious for obvious reasons. As a note, Sébastien’s personal website (Foucan.com) endorses Freerunning and only mentions Parkour as it pertains to history and Sébastien’s upbringing.

In spite of our seemingly harsh criticism of Jump Britain we do give the makers of this documentary some slack. A lot has happened since this film aired in 2006, and many ideas and perceptions of Parkour have changed since that time. Back then it was still widely believed that Parkour was founded by Sébastien Foucan (although there is no doubt that this film had something to do with perpetuating that misconception). Also, and most notably, the abundance of readily available information regarding Parkour and its origins has changed. At the time this information/knowledge was still very unknown in comparison to today when it is widely understood. This is another viable explanation for the erroneous reporting.

We said “seemingly harsh criticism” because above all we really like this documentary. In fact, when putting these slight slips in journalism behind us we have to say that this film as a whole is absolutely incredible! It showcases amazing locations, dazzling cinematography, and features a host of incredible athletes that should be well respected for their talent and the hard work they’ve put in to achieve their level.

Before the documentary below we have included two excerpts from the film. One is a clip that shows Sébastien at the Millennium Stadium in Wales doing a jump that is now recognized as one of the most spectacular in Parkour history. The second is a brief quote from Sébastien that counters some common misconception about Parkour training.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwJXb1RC30o

______________________

“Practicing it always, is best practicing it when you are alone because you need to be focused on yourself. You can do a jump with a friend, you know woosh, it’s ok. But when you are alone it is different. You are a little bit afraid. And you need to find why and you need to find the solution.”

-Sébastien Foucan

______________________

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5901806041431700202&q=Jump%20London&hl=en

With Urban Freeflow Vol. 3 as one of our first posts on MisteParkour.com we have been waiting for the right time to add a series of other impressive documentaries to our library. After a few months we feel that now is that time.

Today we post the first in this series, one of the most impressive Parkour documentaries to date, Jump London. Starring Sébastien Foucan, Johann Vigroux, Jerome Ben Aoues, and including Stephane Vigroux* Jump London was filmed almost exactly 5 years ago in June of 2003. It aired for the first time in Britain latter that same year.

With Sébastien, Johann, and Jerome running and jumping across the rooftops and architecture of 14 different historic and monumental locations across London, the film is enough to make anybody want to try Parkour. As such Jump London, the predecessor of Jump Britain, is widely credited as the match that ignited the Parkour movement in Britain. From minute 25 to 40 this film features nothing but pure Parkour footage, and it includes Sébastien’s famous jump on the battleship HMS Belfast.

Although Sébastien does mention “Parkour,” the term “Freerunning” is the emphasis of the film and the word Parkour is never uttered by the English narrator or during the English translations. Regardless of the verbiage, the stunning cinematography, athleticism, dialogue, and Parkour history discussed in the film makes it well deserving of an addition to this site and a place in history as one of the most influential Parkour films ever created.

*As explained in the film, Jump London was intended to be filmed with Stepahen Vigroux as the fourth Tracer. However, Stephane was not able to participate because he had not yet fully recover from his ACL injury which occurred during the Nike Presto shoot in 2001. Stephane discusses this injury more thoroughly in Urban Freeflow Vol. 3. Even though Stephane was not able to perform for this film specifically, a majority of footage of him and Johann was taken from the Vigroux Brothers (2001 – 2003) video and utilized throughout Jump London.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=461185990931808314&q=Jump+London&ei=nYpMSLeHFY-WrgP-l9jIDA&hl=en

We are starting to have so many videos on this site that we aren’t always sure which ones we have already posted and which ones we still need to post! Yesterday’s post from the Parkour Generation’s Rendezvous I workshop reminded us of a few videos we thought we already had on the site but upon further investigation we found out that we did not. A fair amount of these videos are from Julie Angel and Parkour Generations, and as such we have decided to continue for a time posting a series of their work.

Today we have decided to post not one, not two, but three videos of David Belle. They are all different than the normal videos you will see of David because they are unusually short and they focus on only a couple obstacles (in fact two of them only focus on one). The videos are diverse and definitely fun to watch/study over and over again. 

David Belle – One Handed Wall Run

In this first clip David places his right hand in his pocket and does a one handed wall run. This move is especially impressive because he uses his off hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXq1_-CMAjA

David Belle Fall – Accroches Toi

This second clip shows exclusively the precision jump that David missed in the Accroches Toi video. David completes the jump successfully later in that video, however, as far as our research has uncovered this is one of only two online videos that specifically highlights a fall from David -the other of course being his famous fall on the UCLA campus seen here-.By analyzing David’s fall you can learn a lot about the safety in good Parkour technique. The one-footed precision is frequently a safer way to attempt longer distance precision jumps. By jumping/leaping into a one-footed precision you have one foot forward and the other back which allows for a safer bail and/or landing if you miss because all of your weight is not committed to sticking the jump. The one footed precision is also a good way to practice and/or gauge distances of jumps depending on the circumstances. If the ledge you are jumping to is not very high off the ground then this method is perfect. In this situation if you jump and land with the majority of your weight on your back leg –which lands on the ground- and only part of your weight on your front foot –which lands on the ledge- you can slowly progress into the jump. As you become more comfortable you can land with more and more of your weight on your front foot until you can successfully stick the precision without touching the ground. In David’s case the ledge was high up so he did not have this luxury. However, the potential injuries of his miss were likely diminished because of his good technique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDd9zcQSQV4

David Belle “Live”

This last clip also provides a good opportunity to study David’s technique. Half of the footage from this video was shot from a head camera that David wore. Because of this we have a unique opportunity to see Parkour “Live” from the eyes of David while he overcomes a variety of obstacles.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2678784980977356113&q=David%20Belle%20Kazuma&hl=en