Parkour
16. března 2008 v 15:24 | Loli
One of the best martial arts talents ever to hail from France, Cyril Raffaelli was born in 1974. He began his martial arts training at the age of 6 with nunchaku and at the age of 11 he started his Shotokan Karate training. Aged 14, he began studying at the Annie Fratellini School and later joined a circus, where he developed a passion for acrobatics that led him to work as a stuntman.
Always fascinated by martial arts, Cyril became France's Chinese Boxing Champion in 1998. After his last competition in Hungary in 1999 he decided to devote himself to his movie career. His credits as a stuntman include The Visitors, Ronin, Joan Of Arc, Doberman, Brotherhood Of The Wolf, The Transporter and Michel Vaillant amongst others. Cyril's first credited acting role came in 2000 in Taxi 2, in which he played a judo instructor/ninja in one of the movie's most memorable scenes. The choreographer for all his own fight scenes, Cyril's breakthrough role came in 2001 when he faced off against Jet Li in Kiss Of The Dragon.
Selected Filmography
Actor
District 13 (2004)
Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse (2004)
Giovane Casanova, Il (2002)
Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (2002)
Kiss of the Dragon (2001)
Mortal Transfer (2001)
Taxi 2 (2000)
Would I Lie to You? (1997)
Stunts
Angel-A (2005)
Transporter 2 (2005)
Michel Vaillant (2003)
The Transporter (2002)
Wasabi (2001)
Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
Total Western (2000)
Deep in the Woods (2000)
Taxi 2 (2000)
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)
Ronin (1998)
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
The Corridors of Time: The Visitors II (1998)
Double Team (1997)
Would I Lie to You? (1997)
16. března 2008 v 15:23 | Loli
You reportedly founded 'le parkour' when you were only 15 years old. How did that come about?
Well, actually, I didn't really invent it. It came from my father. I learnt it from him. He was in a kids' troop in Vietnam when he was a child. These are little children who join the Army when they are really young. I was always trying to understand why he was so good at sport and by asking him over and over again I found out that it was because of his youth in Vietnam. He told me about parkour, how he trained himself in doing it and all that stuff. It really fed my curiosity and attracted me to it.
Did you want to follow in his footsteps?
Yes, I did. I never wanted to do it for film or to earn some money, or anything like that. The only reason I got moving was to amaze my dad. I wanted him to look at me and say, 'I like that. What you're doing is great!' I was bad at school. I mean, I actually couldn't find my way. Parkour really saved me.
So you decided to follow in his footsteps to endear yourself to him, as well as it being a kind of tribute?Yes, exactly. Whereas my father learnt it in a military atmosphere, I turned it into a fun and enjoyable form. If you look at young people who go in for parkour nowadays, they go much more into freestyle, including acrobatics, and you can tell that they have fun, while I learnt it in a more serious, effective and 'survival' way.
At what point did parkour become more than just a daily means of getting from 'A' to 'B' or from one place to another?
It's definitely more than that. It's a way of getting yourself confident, of knowing that from any place you are, if there is a problem… It's not about the unreal or the virtual. It's about reality. You know immediately what's possible or not. Most of the time people say, 'Well, if a problem comes up, I can do this or I can do that, blah, blah, blah.' But they actually don't know because they never face those problems. With parkour, putting yourself in difficult situations makes you aware of what you are really capable of.
Is the growth of parkour is something that pleases you?
I am really happy about it. If people are doing parkour for the love of it and for the art, and not because they think it will get them into films, music videos, or anything else, then that's good. That's good because it's a healthy-spirit and a healthy motivation. It's not like a martial art in which you know that you will always have to confront someone and possibly hurt that person. This is fighting actually, but the only fighting in parkour is against yourself. You never have to hurt somebody else to prove that you are stronger. It is something that you only have to prove to yourself.
How would you sum up the philosophy of parkour?Well, when you're doing parkour if you don't want to hurt yourself, you have to do it with the simplest spirit possible, not to presume your strength, and to go little by little. It's just like learning to walk again actually. What often happens in any sport is that there are lots of egos involved. I can also see it in parkour too. Some people are going to come jumping to show off and prove that they are able to do the same as the other, or trying to impress, while it's wrong to go in that direction.
Do you consider yourself a purist in regard to what parkour should be and how it should be developed or do you think that anyone can interpret it differently and take it in various directions?
Anyone can interpret it differently. If I am personally a purist in my own methods, that means that if I am at the level I am today, and if I haven't hurt myself badly yet then it's because I have been following my rules. Therefore when I teach, I am tough because I don't want my student to blame me or say, 'You haven't told me the right way to do it.' So while training other people, I am really strict and tough to make sure they… well, my personal philosophy is, 'Train yourself while crying, and you will win while laughing.' The point is to anticipate as much as you can in order to avoid injuries.
What do you tell your students? What do you try to teach them?Well, when they do a jump, I often tell them that 'once is never enough.' That is to say that you have to wait for the third time to see the master. One time, everybody can have the chance to succeed something like this. So, to really feel as though you are in control or that you have mastered it, you have to repeat the action several times. That's what I say. The three first rules are to do. That means that it's not a matter of time. There is no rush. However, you keep seeing young people hurting themselves because they are not prepared enough. I think that you have less chance of hurting yourself if before jumping you think something like, 'I don't feel it today. I'd rather do it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.' Nobody has ever pressured me into doing a jump because if I don't feel it, I just don't do it. I can tell that each time there is an accident, that's because, as they say, 'more haste, less speed.' Young people go for it straight away because it's easy. You just have to put some trainers on and you can jump. But you need a strong physical condition before doing some parkour, so the first thing, I say is 'You have to do it,' then, 'You have to do it well' and then, 'You have to do it well and fast.' This last rule is the important one when filming, for example. That is to say that lots of people are going to say, 'I can do that jump.' But the crew is working to tight deadlines on a shoot, so when you recce a location and say, 'This I can do, that I can do…' you have to be certain that you are capable of doing it on the shooting day. That requires you to be quite professional and you can't actually start working in show business or the film industry before you have reached this third level, which is 'to do it fast and well'.
How would you describe your character in District 13?
Well, he's a slighty rebellious character who would do anything to get through his situation and his condition because he believes, and keeps hoping, that some light can come back to his district.
Did you feel close to the character?
Well, not today as much as I used to in a time period when I was training a lot and was a bit more like a rebel myself. But you can tell in the movie that it works really well because I did it in a similar spirit and state of mind.
Your performance was obviously very physically demanding. Did it prove to be any more difficult performing for the camera, particulary because of some of the parkour moves that were involved?Yeah, completely. The shooting experience was new and it took me… I spent much more energy acting than 'moving' actually. When I was filming before, I had previously done the recce location, planning what I would do. There is no camera when I 'move'. Well, at least I don't feel it. Acting is different. This is the first film in which I had to act and it wasn't easy to manage.
On average, for the key action sequences, how many takes were required to get the results required by the director and camera operator?
It depended on if it was short jumps and not dangerous stuff, for which you are allowed to repeat it several times. But if you have to deal with a tough and quite dangerous parkour move you have to make sure to get it on the first or second take.
Now you're a film star, would you like to work in Hollywood?
Well, I'll see. I don't have any plan. I think that things happen naturally. I don't like to make plans about the future because I get disappointed if they don't happen. After I have finished a film, I prefer to tell myself that nothing else will happen. If something finally does happen, that's great. If nothing happens, it's not a big deal.
taky se pokusim prelozit...
16. března 2008 v 15:20 | Loli
Takze je to po anglicky...no ja vim...ale co s tim nadelam...mozna kdyz budu mit cas, skusim to prelozit...
The founder and most famous practitioner of parkour, David Belle was born on 29th April 1973 in Fécamp in Seine-Maritime area of Normandy, France and raised by his maternal grandfather, a former Regimental Sergeant-Major of the Parisian sapeurs-pompiers (the military fire service). David's father, Raymond Belle, was a soldier in the French Army and served in Dalat in Vietnam. Raymond was greatly influenced by the pioneering French physical education practitioner, theorist and instructor, George Hebert, and eventually passed on his passion for physical activity to his son. At 15 years old, David left school and moved to the Parisian suburb of Lisses. It was at this time that he began to develop the disciplines that would eventually become what we now know as parkour or free running.
Still following in his father's footstep, David joined the fire brigade and obtained the UFOLEP certificate of gymnastics leadership, and later went on to join a regiment of the French marine corps at Vannes where he became the Regimental rope-climbing record holder and champion (just as his father had been), gained a certificate of honour for his gymnastic agility, and was first in the Essonne obstacle course championship. Continuing to develop his own version of a discipline partly practiced by soldiers as the 'parcours du combattant' (military obstacle course), and by firefighters as the 'parcours SP', David made some videos to illustrate his capabilities. In May 1997, the first footage of David in action was screened to correspondents from the French television sports programme Stade 2. Amazed by the footage, they decided to film a piece about David the following week and the rest is history.
David subsequently met with actor Hubert Kounde (star of La Haine) who initiated him into the arts of theatre, and helped him take his first steps in the medium of film. David soon appeared in several pop promo videos and in 2001 made his feature film debut in L'Engrenage, followed by small roles in Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale (2002) and Elia Suleiman's Divine Intervention (2002).
It was after his brother sent a demo video to Luc Besson that David was finally to get his big break. Impressed by what he saw, Besson originally wanted to feature David in the film, Yamakasi (2001). Things didn't work out, but Besson put David in touch with Cyril Raffaelli and the pair became great friends. The following year, David gained national recognition in the UK when he appeared in a short 'station ident' film for the BBC called Rush Hour, in which he played a man who races home from his office across the rooftops of London in order to catch the start of his favourite BBC TV programme. Finally, in 2004, Luc Besson got his way when David and Cyril were cast in the lead roles of director Pierre Morel's action-thriller, District 13, written and produced by Besson.
Selected Filmography
Actor
District 13 (2004)
Divine Intervention (2002)
Femme Fatale (2002)
Engrenage, L' (2001)
Stunts
Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse (2004)
12. března 2008 v 19:30 | Loli
mno tak jsem trosku hledala no...par davidovych fotecek...vetsina je z filmu no....
12. března 2008 v 19:22 | Loli
mno je to po cesky i po slovensky...fakt nevim kdo to psal...tedkom trosku o davidovi...zacnu s miho pohledu...je hezky a talentovany...hral ve filmu 13.okrsek kluka ktery se jmenoval myslim Leito...odporoucim kouknout si to...hral tam krome jinych take Cyril Rafaeli...priste planuju dat sem clanek zase o nem...pokusim se najit neco po cesky ale neslibuju...a taky sem dam neco o parkouru...asi to bude taky po slovensky ale snad to tolik neva...
Sables d´Olonne, kde David prežil prvých 14 rokov svojho života. Vychovaný svojím dedom Gilbertom Kittenom (bývalým starším seržantom, niekedy slúžiacim požiarnikom v požiarnych vojskách Paríža.) David bol pohltený príbehmi o hrdinstve, a v rannom veku sa v ňom zobudil záujem ku všetkému, čo súviselo s pohybom a aktivitou.
Jeho otec, Raymond Belle, slúžiaci niekedy mladým vojakom francúzskej armády v meste Dalat vo Vietname, bol takisto požiarnikom v požiarnych vojskách a vynikajúcim športovcom. Nazývali ho aj - silou prírody -. Raymond bol vysoko kvalifikovaným záchrancom, on bol známy v kruhoch ľudí svojej profesie. Čo znamená, že mal veľký vplyv na život Davida. (Ak sa chcete dozvedieť informáciu naviac o Raymondovi Belleovi aj Parížskych požiarnych vojskách pozrite francúzsky článok "La fabuleuse histoire des pompiers" (napísaná voj. začiatočníkom Deru, strážcom parížskeho múzea, posväteného požiarnikom) vyrobenú časopisom Editions Tallander).
V okruhu takej rodiny športových hrdinov, bolo jasné, že sa David Belle stal šikovným vo viacerých športových disciplínách, kde bolo treba sa hýbať, také ako ľahká atletika, gymnastika, horolezectvo a bojové umenia.
Na ceste poznania samého seba, mladý David nechal školu v 15 rokoch, aby sa zasvätil športu. No nie kade jakému druhu športu. Belle považoval, že šport má byť užitočný pre život. Sila a obratnosť, rozvíjať sa cez šport takisto nájsť si aj uplatnenie v živote, presne tak mu vravel jeho otec. Neskôr, aby sa z časti podobal na svojho otca a rozvinul svojo ducha mladého nálezcu dobrodružstiev, David často myslel, kde by mohol použiť svoje fyzické schopnosti, aby utiekol od ťažkých situácii, kdeby mohol ukázať svoju silu a chrabrosť. Ako sa dostať do miesta, kde človek potrebuje pomoc? Ako prejsť, aby som sa nedostal do pasce? Predstavoval si seba v takých situáciách, kde nakoniec sa vyžadovala obratnosť tohto chalana.
David Belle je spolu s Sebastienem Foucanem zakladatelem Parkouru (vymysleli také tento název). Parkour (niekedy tiež Le Parkour) je umenie ladností pohybu prekonať akúkoľvek prekážku ať prírodnú či umele vytvorenou, napríklad v mestském prostredí. Prekážky je možné obíhat, přelézat, přeskakovat, šplhat na ně, i další komplikovanější techniky. Hlavním myšlenkou této disciplíny je, že každá prekážka se dá překonat pomocí neustálého pohybu vpřed. Cílem cvičení je přizpôsobit svoj pohyb dané situaci, aby bylo možné prekonat jakoukoli překážku. David Belle se v poslední dobe začíná venovat i herectví.