B13: Banlieue 13
Rating:
Medium:
DVD
Release Date:
9/5/2006
Theatrical Date:
1/1/2004
Date Imported:
11/25/2007
List Price:
$19.98
Genre:
Martial Arts / Science Fiction
Studio:
Magnolia
Cast:
Raffaelli, Cyril / Belle, David / D'Amario, Tony / Naceri, Bibi / Verissimo, Dany
Director:
Morel, Pierre
Audio Format:
Dolby Digital 5.1
Picture Format:
Anamorphic Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:
2.35:1
DVD Region:
1
Running Time:
84
Format:
Color / Dolby / Dubbed / DVD-Video / Subtitled / Widescreen / NTSC
Language:
French Dolby Digital 5.1 / Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 / English (Subtitled) / Thai (Subtitled)
EAN:
0876964000208
UPC:
876964000208
Tag:
France
Description:
Paris, 2010. The French government has walled in the most crime-ridden areas of the city in an attempt to contain crime. Now these ghettos, or barrios, are isolated from the rest of society; and inside their walls drug dealers and violent criminals have free reign to control things without regulation. Unfortunately, it's not only criminals that are trapped inside these walls. Along with them are all the innocent poor who did nothing wrong other than being born in the wrong place at the wrong time. And one of them isn't going to take it any longer.His name is Leito (David Belle), and he protects his building and fends off countless ne'er-do-wells using a unique, acrobatic fighting style. But things heat up when his sister is kidnapped by the local drug lord who has hijacked a military bomb and accidentally activated it, leaving only 24 hours until the entire ghetto is destroyed.
Now Leito is forced to team up with a supercop from the outside, Damein (Cyril Raffaelli), to rescue his sister and diffuse the bomb before it kills an estimated two million people--many of them innocent, law-abiding citizens. Together they use their incredible fighting and acrobatic skills to both elude and kick the asses of the army of drug-dealing foot soldiers who are hot on their trail.
For acrobatic martial arts and action in the tradition of Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa, look no further.
Copyright © 2001-6 HKFlix, all rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from HKFlix.
Now Leito is forced to team up with a supercop from the outside, Damein (Cyril Raffaelli), to rescue his sister and diffuse the bomb before it kills an estimated two million people--many of them innocent, law-abiding citizens. Together they use their incredible fighting and acrobatic skills to both elude and kick the asses of the army of drug-dealing foot soldiers who are hot on their trail.
For acrobatic martial arts and action in the tradition of Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa, look no further.
Copyright © 2001-6 HKFlix, all rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from HKFlix.
Notes:
AKA: District B13
PRODUCTION NOTES: A resolutely contemporary action film, DISTRICT B13 arose from a script penned by Luc Besson and is directed by Pierre Morel. Chief cinematographer of many feature pictures, Pierre Morel, who was scouting for a project, found himself at the controls of DISTRICT B13 in December 2003. The shoot was interrupted for six months after the star Cyril Raffaelli got hurt. "One day," he explains, "I happened to be in Luc's office and he told me, 'here, read this and tell me if you'd like to direct this film.' I spent the night reading the script and phoned him back the next morning. I told him I was really excited about it, but wondered if I'd be up to the task. He answered, 'don't start by being disagreeable!' (laughter). We commenced preparation in January 2004." The first challenge of DISTRICT B13: the credibility of the fights and chases. Ever since Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior, the new reference in action/martial arts films, distributed by EuropaCorp, the bar has been set high. The casting of Leïto and Damien was therefore essential. David Belle, who was at the origin of Yamakasi and invented the concept of Parkour, a philosophy of action based on total mobility in an urban environment, was offered the part of Leïto. He has, moreover, many points in common with this character. To play Damien, the "untouchable" cop, the production company focused in on Cyril Raffaelli, specialist in precision stunts. He's been seen on screen in Taxi 2, Mortal Transfer, Mission Cleopatra and Kiss of the Dragon (where he plays Tchéky Karyo's sidekick). During their first meetings, Pierre Morel and Luc Besson quickly realized that they had come up with a dream pair. The film's preparation accelerated, for, much like the bomb in DISTRICT B13, the countdown had already begun. When the film's French theatrical release date was confirmed on November 10, 2004, the crew were still right in the middle of the shoot. Everything henceforth went very quickly. The first scenes to be shot were the comic sequences. After dozens of hours of grueling rehearsals which pushed them all to their very limits, David and Cyril thus became Leïto and Damien. Part of the exterior locations were shot in the gloomy housing projects of Romania: there, it is easier to obtain authorization to do stunts on the concrete towers. As the shoot advanced, the stunts became more and more complicated. Without stuntmen, or rather with actors doing their own stunts. Never before seen in France since the golden days of Jean-Paul Belmondo! To capture the ultra rapid actions, Pierre Morel filmed most of the stunt scenes and choreographies with a special high-speed camera, recording 150 frames/second instead of just 24, enabling the audience to "discover with a little more comfort. You can really see what's happening. Even if, in the end, during editing, we barely slowed down things," explains Pierre Morel. The shoot became more and more complex with each passing day to wind up with the biggest action scenes, notably an incredible shootout/fight inside a clandestine casino. Here, there was no room for improvisation and the stunts, rehearsed a thousand times over, had to be reproduced to the very fraction of an inch. Cyril Raffaelli: "It's extremely calculated, even if, when we shoot, there's always a certain freestyle aspect to it. During rehearsals, we never have access to actual shooting conditions. We don't know what the sets or lighting will be like. We try to be as near as possible to what things will be really like on D-Day. So, each time we come to the moment when 'Camera! Action!' is shouted out, we always feel a certain amount of stress and fear, because there's a whole crew waiting for the action to happen, so we don't necessarily get on with it exactly when we want to, but rather when we're asked to." A film at 1,000 miles an hour, DISTRICT B13 is nevertheless not some big, soulless machine, but rather a picture with a reasonable budget, carried along by a motivated crew. Morel: "We tried to make a film using as little technology as possible. It's more of a raw film, simple, old-fashioned and handmade."
PRODUCTION NOTES: A resolutely contemporary action film, DISTRICT B13 arose from a script penned by Luc Besson and is directed by Pierre Morel. Chief cinematographer of many feature pictures, Pierre Morel, who was scouting for a project, found himself at the controls of DISTRICT B13 in December 2003. The shoot was interrupted for six months after the star Cyril Raffaelli got hurt. "One day," he explains, "I happened to be in Luc's office and he told me, 'here, read this and tell me if you'd like to direct this film.' I spent the night reading the script and phoned him back the next morning. I told him I was really excited about it, but wondered if I'd be up to the task. He answered, 'don't start by being disagreeable!' (laughter). We commenced preparation in January 2004." The first challenge of DISTRICT B13: the credibility of the fights and chases. Ever since Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior, the new reference in action/martial arts films, distributed by EuropaCorp, the bar has been set high. The casting of Leïto and Damien was therefore essential. David Belle, who was at the origin of Yamakasi and invented the concept of Parkour, a philosophy of action based on total mobility in an urban environment, was offered the part of Leïto. He has, moreover, many points in common with this character. To play Damien, the "untouchable" cop, the production company focused in on Cyril Raffaelli, specialist in precision stunts. He's been seen on screen in Taxi 2, Mortal Transfer, Mission Cleopatra and Kiss of the Dragon (where he plays Tchéky Karyo's sidekick). During their first meetings, Pierre Morel and Luc Besson quickly realized that they had come up with a dream pair. The film's preparation accelerated, for, much like the bomb in DISTRICT B13, the countdown had already begun. When the film's French theatrical release date was confirmed on November 10, 2004, the crew were still right in the middle of the shoot. Everything henceforth went very quickly. The first scenes to be shot were the comic sequences. After dozens of hours of grueling rehearsals which pushed them all to their very limits, David and Cyril thus became Leïto and Damien. Part of the exterior locations were shot in the gloomy housing projects of Romania: there, it is easier to obtain authorization to do stunts on the concrete towers. As the shoot advanced, the stunts became more and more complicated. Without stuntmen, or rather with actors doing their own stunts. Never before seen in France since the golden days of Jean-Paul Belmondo! To capture the ultra rapid actions, Pierre Morel filmed most of the stunt scenes and choreographies with a special high-speed camera, recording 150 frames/second instead of just 24, enabling the audience to "discover with a little more comfort. You can really see what's happening. Even if, in the end, during editing, we barely slowed down things," explains Pierre Morel. The shoot became more and more complex with each passing day to wind up with the biggest action scenes, notably an incredible shootout/fight inside a clandestine casino. Here, there was no room for improvisation and the stunts, rehearsed a thousand times over, had to be reproduced to the very fraction of an inch. Cyril Raffaelli: "It's extremely calculated, even if, when we shoot, there's always a certain freestyle aspect to it. During rehearsals, we never have access to actual shooting conditions. We don't know what the sets or lighting will be like. We try to be as near as possible to what things will be really like on D-Day. So, each time we come to the moment when 'Camera! Action!' is shouted out, we always feel a certain amount of stress and fear, because there's a whole crew waiting for the action to happen, so we don't necessarily get on with it exactly when we want to, but rather when we're asked to." A film at 1,000 miles an hour, DISTRICT B13 is nevertheless not some big, soulless machine, but rather a picture with a reasonable budget, carried along by a motivated crew. Morel: "We tried to make a film using as little technology as possible. It's more of a raw film, simple, old-fashioned and handmade."