The Washington Post has an article on parkour that features some interesting background on David Belle, one of the stars of Banlieue 13, which I consider to be one of the more influential action movies of recent years.
Rent it if only to watch the chase scene involving Belle's character that opens the film. The man moves like a drop of mercury (here's the YouTube version, but it doesn't do the scene justice).
When B-13 screened at TIFF '05, the audience was told afterwards, No CGI, and no wires. And they roared!
(U.S. parkour evangelist Mark) Toorock grew up outside Boston, but he first encountered parkour in 2002, while living in London and working for a stockbroker, where he was shown a video of Belle running rampant in France. The experience of watching Belle's movements was transformative."I was just blown away by it," says Toorock. "I don't want to be David Belle, and I know I'll never be physically capable of doing some of the same things he has been doing, but I will give myself credit for this: I saw something; I was inspired by it; and I knew I could do at least some of it, so that's what I set out to do."
Belle got the ideas that led to the development of parkour from his father and grandfather, both rescuers in the French fire service, and from his own training in gymnastics and martial arts and a brief stint in the French marine infantry. Because of that background, he says in various videos, he prefers to think of parkour as play with a purpose. Parkour movements are useful skills, he emphasizes, based on maneuvers that his father used to rescue people and to save his own life.
After watching the video, Toorock and his friends went out to give it a try. In retrospect, Toorock says, they're lucky they didn't kill themselves.
"Like a lot of people who get interested in parkour, we had no idea what were supposed to do," says Toorock, who in his early experimenting suffered only a few twisted ankles and nasty scrapes. "It was just ridiculous. Picture a bunch of guys running around like idiots, trying to jump off of the highest things they could find. We didn't have the tools, the training or the knowledge to do it safely, and we didn't have any idea what we were supposed to do to get from where we were to what David Belle was doing. Without any guidance, we were just making it up as we went. It wasn't until we met Sebastien Foucan* that we finally got some useful training."
* Foucan was involved in the amazing chase scene early in Casino Royale (although a stunt double was used for some of the dicier parts, according to Wikipedia; bonus points if you can tell me the stunt that CR ripped off from B-13 :) ); another sign that parkour and freerunning have hit the mainstream.
Along with Belle, Steve Harrison and Stephane Vigroux, Foucan was one of the creators of parkour and its offshoot, "freerunning," more than 18 years ago in Lisses, France. Parkour, as practiced by Belle, is a purist's pursuit: Point A to Point B, as expediently as possible. Freerunning is its more playful, flashier form -- Point A to Point B, with as much dramatic flair as possible -- and Foucan is its chief stylist. Foucan was responsible for the first wave of mainstream exposure for the sports in the United States in 2002 with his "Angry Chicken" ad for Nike -- which featured him scrambling over buildings to avoid a perturbed bird -- and, later, as a performer in a music video for Madonna. He is credited with coining the term freerunning and has been the most recognizable face of the activity internationally.
Foucan says that parkour and free-running initially grew out of the childish ninja and superhero games he and his friends, including Belle, invented on school playgrounds and around their town but that they have evolved into a discipline as focused as any martial art. Foucan's philosophy about his training activities helped form the basis for Toorock's approach to parkour instruction and his efforts to build a parkour community in the United States.
"The traits you display in life are the same traits you display in freerunning," says Foucan, in a voice-over for the documentary "Jump London." "The doubts and fears you have in everyday life are the same you find in the discipline. In everyday life, though, they can be more difficult to combat. Freerunning is a way of fighting one's fears and demons, and then one can apply this to life."
Toorock took the lesson seriously: Seeing Belle in action made him realize how little of his physical potential he had been using. Meeting Foucan at a parkour jam in London helped him see that he hadn't been using his head, either.
"In the beginning, I really didn't see the depth of it or what it could be," says Toorock. "But when you get around these guys and see that they are playful, physical, philosophical and incredibly disciplined about everything they do, you start to get a better idea about how to treat this machine the way it's meant to be treated."