TIFF Report: Banlieue 13 Review

Balieue 13 made me squeal with delight when it started. It directly referenced the beginning of Escape from New York with a scrolling type informing us that this is Paris, 2010 – and that the ghettos of Paris have been walled off to protect the upstanding citizens from the criminal elements. And that’s the beginning of what Banlieue 13 is - while the soundtrack remains glorious, frenetic Gallic techno hip hop, the film itself is a mash-up of previous hits and new beats. The previous hits being references from everything from Carpenter to Fincher, and the new beat, of course, being Parkour – the (French) home-grown art of, ahem, running about and jumping on things. When you say it like that it sounds stupid, and it really does seem stupid, but when you watch it, it’s amazing. The flow of a skilled master of Parkour as he navigates a cityscape, leaping through windows and running across walls has you reaching for the control pad in desperation to play what you’re seeing, so fantastically videogame are the images. It is unfortunate to note, however, that in the film’s many fantastic chase sequences, the director does his best to destroy the flow with quick cuts and odd shots. This seems particularly odd as Pierre Morel was the cinematographer for The Transporter (the fight scenes so gloriously stupid they made up for the lumpen plot, making it a fine guilty pleasure) and Danny the Dog. This can be placed down to inexperience perhaps at sailing alone – this being his directorial debut.

The plot concerns two protagonists – Leito, who looks a bit like that twat out of Channel 4 Comedy the Book Group (International audiences might know him better from Alan Partridge, with Steve Coogan) except unbelievably built, and who (in an entirely unexplained fashion) ends up with loads of smack that belongs to the tribal warlord of Banlieu 13, Taha – which he promptly destroys, before finding himself, through a variety of twists and turns, teaming up with undercover cop Damien (who initially appears in an astounding wig, tagging along with a Cuban gang leader who for all intents and purposes is Papa Lazarou from The League of Gentlemen) to defuse a bomb and save his sister, both in the hands of the (quite evil and coked out his nut) Taha. Which they do! By running about and jumping on things.

Much like the way Banlieue 13 makes you wish you could play it visually, the story is a videogame. It follows a path of pure action and excitement to the point where it gives the film the much needed flow missing from the chase scenes. It’s so transparent that for absolutely no reason, just as you expect them to destroy the bomb, they have to face a gigantic ‘boss’ character, a bit like a fat Zangief out of Street Fighter 2. It’s thrillingly silly.

In the end, however, the final pay off is generic at best, though does highlight a strange fact about French movies that deal with Parisian ghettos – that French film makers seek not to demonise the people that live there, nor make heroes out of violence, but a true belief in liberty, equality, fraternity – that all people deserve their rights. This film, though the long tracking shot into sequence calls to mind some of the fantastic camera work seen in the great film about Parisian youth, La Haine, can’t really be compared, and isn’t truly about that. It’s about people running about and jumping on things.