The world championships of any sport brings together the best of the best. That's certainly the case in fencing, an exciting and dynamic sport that has (at least until now) gotten far less than its fair share of TV or DVD time. Fencing Pictures delivers the 2005 Fencing World Championships in a series of DVDs, giving us a chance to see world-class fencers at their best in a sport that demands agility, speed, tactical maneuvering, and intense mental focus, all rolled up into one package. Here, we get the Women's Foil event on DVD.

Overview (feel free to skip down to the next section if you're a fencer)

The sport of fencing is divided into three categories by the type of weapon: foil, epee, or sabre. While all three weapons have the basic elements in common, there are different rules for each weapon, resulting in a distinct style and set of tactics for each one. In foil, fencers use a light-weight sport weapon that's descended from the rapier; touches (points) can be scored only with the tip. The tip is spring-loaded so that a small but distinct amount of pressure is necessary to successfully score a touch; a mere brush with the tip won't score. For foilists, valid touches can only be scored on a limited target area: the torso minus the arms. An electronic scoring system detects any hits that land on valid target area, setting off a colored light for the fencer (or fencers) who hit. (The cables attached to the fencers' jackets are cables that connect their weapons to the scoring system. Though it may seem like it would be distracting, in fact the spring-tensioned cables are something that we fencers don't even notice once we get started.)

Because it's possible for both lights to go off, the referee is responsible for deciding which fencer is awarded the touch, based on the rules of "right of way": the attacker has the advantage, unless the defender successfully blocks the attack (parries) and returns the attack (ripostes). If a fencer lands a hit on a non-valid target, a white light goes off and the referee halts the action, but the "off-target" hit doesn't score.

Foil can be described as a "cat and mouse" game: the fencers do a lot of feinting and maneuvering on the strip, with explosive actions mixed in. The direct-elimination bouts that we see here go to 15 points, but there is also a time limit. The bout is divided into three three-minute periods; between each period, the fencers have a one-minute break in which they can consult with their coaches. If the fencers reach the end of the time limit before either of them scores 15, whoever has the higher score wins. (Only the time actually spent fencing goes "on the clock," so the actual time spent in the bout is longer than 11 minutes.) Because of the slower pace and the time limit, a lead of a few touches is quite difficult to overcome, unlike sabre, in which comebacks from large deficits are not uncommon.

The event coverage

One thing that is worth mentioning up front is that the on-screen representation of the score lights is extremely confusing. On the actual scoring system, with the lights displayed on the base of the podium, the light goes on for the fencer who scores the touch. However, in the coverage of the individual event, the colored circle representing the light is shown reversed - the color is correct, but it's placed underneath the name of the fencer who was hit. This reversal is very confusing, but at least they fix it in the coverage of the team event.

The program starts with an introduction of the four semifinalists, running about six minutes before the first semifinal bout starts. This is a nice idea, which would be made a lot better if there were subtitles for the announcements... because the descriptions of the fencers' achievements is in French and German.

The first semifinal bout is between Knapek (Hungary) and Vezzali (Italy). The bout is tense, with a lot of maneuvering and relatively few completed actions; both Knapek and Vezzali seem intent on feeling each other out, often making multiple probing attacks before committing to a final, explosive attack. The fencing looks quite clean, with very few off-targets; if you've only seen low-level foil being fenced, you'll be very impressed with the point control and accuracy that these fencers display. It's an interesting bout, especially as the clock starts ticking down to the last half-minute , but unfortunately there's no voiceover commentary for it, so if you aren't familiar with fencing, you'll miss out on a lot. (As a sabre fencer, I wished for a knowledgeable foilist to comment on the style and tactics exhibited here; foil is very different from sabre.) However, we do get excellent use of slow-motion; every touch is replayed with a close-up slow-motion shot, allowing us to get a good look at the action. In total, this bout runs about 26 minutes.

The second semifinal bout is between Mueller (Germany) and Wuilleme (France). This bout has a much more active feel, with the fencers using the whole strip much more, and in general getting into many more active phrases. On the other hand, it's also not as clean as the Knapek-Vezzali bout; here we get a lot of off-target hits. Personally, I think this is the more exciting of the two bouts; I liked Mueller's dynamic style in particular. It's interesting, in any case, to see the distinct difference in style between the two semi-final bouts. (It's also interesting to see the variation in strictness of the referees. Here, Mueller gets carded at one point for reaching back and pulling on her body cord; it draws boos from the crowd but is entirely correct. In contrast, in the Knapek-Vezzali bout, the fencers consistently started their action before the referee said "fence" ("Allez"), but are never corrected for that.) In total, this bout runs about 22 minutes, making the total running time for the semifinals about 55 minutes.

The final, gold-medal bout is between Mueller and Vezzali (this is revealed in the menu, though I wish it were left as a surprise). I won't reveal who wins this bout, but I'll tell you that it runs about 30 minutes. Here we get the energetic Mueller against the more cool and calculating Vezzali. It's an interesting bout, with some definite emotions displayed here, and it's closely fought enough to make for exciting viewing.

Next we get the gold medal bout for the team event, between South Korea and Romania. Here, the format is that we have a composite of nine bouts running the score up to 45. The fencers rotate out and back in again in a set sequence, so that by the time the match is over, each of the three fencers has fenced each of the opposing team's three fencers. (The lineup has four fencers apiece because each team has an alternate.) What makes the team format interesting is that the rotation happens when one of the fencers reaches the next highest increment of 5, or the three-minute time period for each separate bout runs out. The coverage of the team event runs about 55 minutes. Here, we do get a nice paired commentary track, which adds a lot of interest to the coverage. Though they don't identify themselves in the commentary (which I wish they did), from the credits it appears that our mystery commentators are Alex Ripa and Linda Strachan (a top UK foilist and an international referee).

The DVD

The Women's Foil World Championship DVD is packaged in an ultra-slim plastic keepcase; at least in my copy, there's no cover insert.

The menus are nicely done, with an animation that's eye-catching without being intrusive. Oddly, the default highlighted selection is the final, not the first semi-final, but other than that everything is straightforward and easy to use. (I do wish that the names of the fencers hadn't been listed in the gold medal bout, as this would have increased the excitement). You can choose to "play all" or select the bouts individually, which is a nice feature. Even if you don't press "play all," if you let the semifinals run, it jumps automatically to the finals.

Video

The footage is presented in its original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and looks quite good. The image is clean and crisp, so we can see the details of the fencing action clearly. The camera angles are well done, giving us the closest view possible that's consistent with seeing all of the action. There's liberal use of the slow-motion replays, which definitely adds to the quality of the experience. The slow-motion replays are well integrated into the video, better than in the Women's Sabre DVD, because there's a nice smooth fade-out from the replay to the current action. The camera work is well done, giving us good angles during the bout and even some close-ups of the coaching during the breaks.

Audio

The sound quality is good here; for the individual event, we get the sound of the bout captured nicely, with the clicks of the blades and the exclamations of the fencers coming across, as well as the referee's calls and the responses of the crowd. There's a nice commentary provided for the team event, but unfortunately none for the individual event. For the team event, the commentators' voices are clear and easy to understand; the actual sound of the bout is a bit muted, though. It would be nice to hear a touch more of the "fencing ambiance" behind the commentary.

Extras

For special features, we get a brief word of welcome from FIE president Rene Roch to start with. Of considerably more interest is an interview with Italian foilist Valenina Vezzali. It runs about six minutes. The questions are presented by Fencing Pictures in English; Vezzali provides some answers in English and some in Italian, with the assistance of a translator. I would highly recommend waiting to watch this until after watching the gold-medal bout, because Vezzali discusses a particular (and very interesting!) situation that comes up at the very end of that bout.

Final thoughts

This is a solid and well-produced fencing DVD, with excellent video coverage of the Women's Foil World Championship event and excellent video and audio quality. While there's no commentary for the individual event, we do get a nice commentary track for the team event, which adds interest to the program. It's probably not the best program to introduce viewers to fencing, but for fencers (who are the primary audience anyway) there's a lot to like: the bouts are exciting, the DVD is well done, and there's a lot of content: more than two and a half hours, total. Highly recommended.