B 13 film project

PARISIAN BANLIEUESCLICHY-SOUS-BOIS B-13Kailene Dolan and Eric Burgmann

THE SETTING OF B-13

• Location: Paris• In a banlieue (suburb/project) of

Paris• Clichy-sous-Bois

• *Please note that there is no mention of a particular location for the film, other than Paris, itself. Although, it can be inferred that the film is set in a neighborhood such as Clichy-sous-Bois, due to the context clues that are present in the film. Caption: Clichy-sous-Bois Map. Photo by Metropolitan. Available to the public

domain for any purpose. Source: Wikimedia Commons.Description: Colored map of Paris with its inner ring departments along with the location of Clichy-sous-Bois, which is highlighted in red.

WHY CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS?

Banlieue in the film, B-13

• Known for:• High crime rate

• Including organized crime

• High drug use

• Heavy gang involvement

• Vandalism

• Run-down buildings

• Poverty/Poor economic status

Clichy-sous-Bois

• Known for:• Riots that took place in October and November of

2005• Regarding police brutality and injustice

• High Crime• During the riots, thousands of people were arrested.

• Vandalism• During the riots, cars were burned and hundreds of public

buildings were destroyed.

• Unemployment/Poverty• Approximately 25% of all Clichy-sous-Bois residents are

unemployed.

(Crumley)

WHY CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS?

• The banlieue in B-13 and Clichy-sous-Bois are similar regarding the way, in which the government/politicians view their neigborhood.• For example:

• The Government and Banlieue 13• The premise of the film is that the government has placed a hydrogen bomb within the walls of

Banlieue 13 in order to completely do away with the crime-ridden area and, essentially, cleanse Paris of its existence.

• The Government and Clichy-sous-Bois• During the summer prior to the riots, the Minister of Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, made statements

which included “sweeping clean the suburbs with a karcher” ( a high-pressure washer). Similarly, during the riots of 2005, Nicolas Sarkozy also referred to the rioting youth as “scum” (Wihtol de Wenden).

CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS AND B-13

Caption: Boulevard Gagarine à Clichy-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), France. Photo by Clicsouris. Licensed under Creative Commons. Link to License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.enDescription: View of Clichy-sous-Bois from a distance on Boulevard Gagarine.

Caption: Leito jumping between rooftops. Photo by Dave Kellam. Licensed under Creative Commons. Link to License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/Photo was cropped to eliminate character.Description: A view of a building in B-13, similar to those is city scape of Clichy-sous-Bois.

B-13 AND CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS: THE RIOTS

• What were the riots?

• In November of 2005, riots broke out throughout some Parisian suburbs.

• Key Events

• According to a timeline of events from BBC News, the first key event of the riots took place on October 25, 2005 when Nicolas Sarkozy was pelted with stones and bottles during his visit to the suburb Argenteuil (“Timeline”).

• The suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois came into the situation just two day later, when two teenagers were electrocuted while climbing into an electrical substation where locals claim they were trying to hide from police. The police denied their involvement, but the news triggered riots in which fifteen vehicles were destroyed (“Timeline”).

• The unrest spread into the suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis soon after. By October 30, Sarkozy sent police reinforcements into Clichy-sous-Bois to stop riots, which in turn ended up making people angrier when a tear gas grenade was set off in a mosque (“Timeline”).

• The riots worsened and peaked throughout the beginning of November.

B-13 AND CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS: THE RIOTS

• Who was Effected?

• The wrath of rioters following these events was felt throughout the suburbs, and even stretched in to other major cities and Paris where numerous cars were burned (Smith).

• The Outcome

• By the end of the nearly 3 week long riots, more than 10,000 cars were burned, hundreds of public buildings were damaged, about 3,000 people were arrested, and a state of emergency was imposed in many areas around French cities (Crumley).

Caption: Les Evenements de 2005. Photo by Blanc-Mesnil. Public

Domain. Source: Wkimedia Commons.

Description: Images of destruction during the French riots in

2005.

B-13 AND CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS: THE RIOTS

• How could the riots have effected B-13?

• B-13 seems to tell a lot about this time in which it was filmed. Around the time that the film was produced and released, the unrest before the riots was beginning in the banlieues of Paris.

• The brunt of the riots in Parisian suburbs came about later in 2005 as previously mentioned, especially in Clichy-sous-Bois, but they weren’t completely spontaneous. Though the riots started after a tumultuous two weeks in the banlieues, multiple factors led up to these events and would have been known during the production of the film. For close to twenty-five years, there were numerous claims of police discrimination and that police weren’t held accountable for the death of youths in the projects (Wihtol de Wenden).

B-13 AND CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS: THE RIOTS

• Long-time unrest in the suburbs

• Many people, often foreigners that moved into the Parisian suburbs, felt they faced a lot of inequality throughout the time leading up to the riots. This feeling had roots all the way back in the 1980s, especially among immigrants.

• “Immigrant youth have experienced mounting exasperation with the lack of distinction made between Arabs, Muslims, and delinquents, along with a feeling of lack of equality and respect—two claims that gave birth to the 1983 ‘March of the Beurs’” (Wihtol de Wenden).

• The “March of the Beurs” was a historic anti-racism march from Marsielle to Paris (Wihtol de Wenden).

B-13 AND CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS: THE RIOTS

• Banlieues in 2004 (B-13’s Release Year)• There was an increased involvement of police on the streets of ghettos from the

late 80s to the early 2000s as well, and this didn’t sit well with community members of the banlieues either.

• As shown by an excerpt in the article “French Sociology Under Fire,” “the number of people stopped for infractions of drug legislation was 39 times greater and 8.5 times greater for infractions of legislation concerning foreigners” from 1987 to 2004 (Poupeau). • Obviously, this fact probably played a big role in leading up to the riots because it

angered people that the police presence was driving up the number of arrests, and could have influenced the movie. In the movie, Leïto seems to have a general distrust of authority figures like police and Captain Tomaso, because he probably blames them for the living situation in B-13 and hasn’t been able to rely on police for any help even when it’s needed. As mentioned in the previous slide, some people in the banlieues felt there was a lack of equality and respect from police. This also seemed to be the case in the film.

B-13 AND CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS: THE RIOTS

• Life in the real banlieues, such as Clichy-sous-Bois, definitely played a large role in B-13. The film seemed to be loosely based on what life is like in the ghettos to an extent. There is a problem with drugs in B-13, just as the arrests in the real banlieues at the time show. People in the banlieues were very unhappy with police and authority figures including President Sarkozy, just as Leïto and other people in the film seem to be unhappy with them.

AN ACTION STILL FROM B-13

Caption: No title is given. Photo by Flicks.co.nz. Labeled for

reuse. Source: Google Images.

Description: A man, partaking in parkour, jumps across rooftops

within Banlieue 13

PARKOUR IN B-13

• Origin: France

• Founders: David Belle and Sabastien Foucan

• David Belle, along with eight others, “developed their physical and mental capacities through finding ways to overcome obstacles around them” and thus created Parkour (“What is Parkour”).

• Stresses utility in regards to Parkour

• Interesting Fact:

• One of the founders of Parkour, David Belle, actually appears in the film, B-13. Belle plays the main character, Leïto, who uses Parkour quite frequently throughout the film as a means of escaping imminent danger within the walls of Banlieue 13.

PARKOUR IN B-13

• Helps to show a positive side of life in the banlieue• For example:

• Parkour originated in the projects of France.• In having the film centered around

Parkour, the director, Pierre Morel, is indicating that the banlieues are not simply places that are filled with crime, drugs, violence and poverty. Morel is allowing the viewer to see that banlieues can have positive effects on society. This is best seen through Leïto(David Belle) who utilizes Parkour throughout the film and represents all of the good that exists within a historically “bad” environment.

Caption. David Belle. Photo by

Gagikayoubsergi. Licensed under Creative

Commons. Link to license:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-

sa/3.0/deed.en

Description: David Belle participating in

Parkour.

B-13 AND THE WALLS AROUND PARIS

• Historically, walls have existed around Paris serving several different purposes.• For example, Philippe Auguste built walls around the city in the 12th century.

Map of Sebastian Münster (1572). Photo by Braun &

Hogenberg - Civitates orbis terrarium. Labeled for reuse,

public domain. Source: Google Images, Wikipedia.

Description: Blue highlights Philippe Auguste’s Wall around

Paris.

• While Lopez mentions that a wall around a city

has benefits, he also states in his article “The

Crossroads Within the Wall” that “The wall, too,

may become an obstacle if it is too high and tight,

if it hinders further growth, above all if it frustrates

the opportunity for exchanges beyond it” (Lopez).

• This is the case in B-13 where citizens of the

banlieue are not allowed contact with

anyone outside of the district and vice versa.

THE HISTORICAL MESSAGE OF B-13

• The primary theme of B-13 seems to be based on social classes.

• The poorest people of Paris reside in this fictional suburban district and a man has unknowingly been sent there to destroy it and all of its people. In that, it has a strong message about the role of social class throughout the history of Paris.

• Particularly, the film seems to draw on Haussmann's Paris under Napoleon III, when the poor were pushed out of the city to fend for themselves because Napoleon III didn’t want them in the city. It is because of this reconstruction of Paris and the exile of the poor to banlieues that the word “banlieue” has taken on a negative meaning in French, often referring to slums (Riemenschnitter).

THE SOCIO-CULTURAL MESSAGE OF B-13

• This film also brings in a lot of present day Parisian sociocultural ideas, also particularly focusing on class differences.

• Captain Damien Tomaso is at first reluctant to work with Leïto, but is willing to because he has to and wants to save B-13, and Leïto is even more reluctant to work with Tomasomostly because he doesn’t seem to trust him.

• Tomaso and Leïto’s class differences seem to serve as a big obstacle for them to overcome when working together. However, in the end they establish a bit of a friendship, sending the message that class shouldn’t matter so much.

David belle. Photo by mc

jean gab1. Labeled for

reuse. Source: Google

Images.

Description: David Belle

and Cyril Raffaelli as Leïto

and Damien Tomaso.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• B-13. Dir. Pierre Morel. Perf. David Belle and Cyril Rafaelli. Magnolia Pictures, 2004. Netflix.

• Crumley, Bruce. “The Problem of Clichy: After 2005 Riots, France’s Suburbs Are Still Miserable.” TIME, Inc., 7 December 2012. Web. 24 October 2014. <http://world.time.com/2012/12/07/the-problem-of-clichy-after-2005-riots-frances-suburbs-are-still-miserable/>

• Poupeau, Franck. “French Sociology Under Fire: A preliminary diagnosis of the November 2005 “urban riots.” Riots in France, n.p., 2 Dec 2005. Web. 24 Oct 2014. <http://riotsfrance.ssrc.org/Poupeau/>

• Riemenschnitter, Kathrin. “Urban Segregation|Clichy-sous-Bois|Paris.” Digital Library and Archives, 29 April 2014. <http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd05082008170507/unrestricted/thesis3.pdf>

• Smith, Craig S. "As Riots Continue in France, Chirac Vows to Restore Order." The New York Times. N.p., 6 Nov. 2005. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/international/europe/06cnd-paris.html?ex=>

• "Timeline: French Riots." BBC News. BBC, 14 Nov. 2005. Web. 24 Oct. 2014. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4413964.stm>

• “What is Parkour.” Parkour Visions. n.p., 10 October 2014. Web. 24 October 2014.<http://parkourvisions.org/what-is-parkour/>

• Wihtol de Wenden, Catherine. “Reflections ‘À Chaud’ on the French Suburban Crisis.” Riots in France, N.p., 2 Dec. 2005. Web. 24 Oct. 2014. <http://riotsfrance.ssrc.org/Wihtol_de_Wenden/>