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Leaping
(Around) Tall Buildings DISTRICT B13: Directed by Pierre Morel. Script by Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri. Starring Cyril Raffaelli, David Belle, Tony D'Amario, Bibi Naceri and Dany Verissimo. Magnolia Pictures, 2006. R. 85 minutes. In French with English subtitles.
Paris, 2010. Troublesome ghettos have been walled off and left to fester without basic city services like, say, mail … or police officers. It's the rare resident of district B13 who wants to upset the status quo — the place is run by Taha (Bibi Naceri), who appears to snort nearly as much coke as he sells — but there's always one. In this case, it's Leïto (David Belle), a frequently shirtless anti-drug vigilante. The sculpted Belle is the originator of Parkour, a street art in which "participants aim to pass obstacles in their environment, both natural and man-made, rapidly and fluidly." If that sounds a little goofy, District B13's first action sequence, in which Leïto flees through buildings and across rooftops, will convince you otherwise. The improvisational, exhausting flight is a thing of beauty. Outside the wall, Leïto's opposite number is Damien (Cyril Raffaelli), a police captain who's so good at insane jobs (like dispatching an entire casino of baddies via balletic fight choreography) that he's sent into B13 to defuse a stolen (and ticking) bomb. (Like Belle, Raffaelli does his own jaw-dropping stunts.) Once Leïto and Damien are teamed up against Taha's multicultural minions, director Pierre Morel's film (from a screenplay by producer Luc Besson, who directed The Fifth Element, and Naceri) doesn't have quite the kinetic breathlessness of its first half. A nasty political plot gives the movie some social steam, but it's definitely secondary to the scrappy antics of the two stars, whose stylish leaps and bounds make District B13 an entertaining break from the summer's usual computer-generated thrills. –Molly Templeton District B13 opens Friday, July 14 at the Bijou.
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