Smallsword Duelling

[mariusgmioc]

Originally Posted by batjka

The movie "The Duelists", while interesting and entertaining, does not show correct fencing techniques. Here's a video of a real duel that occurred in Paris in 1900. And while this is about 100 years since the bouts shown in "The Duelists", swords are similar and so is their use. Enjoy the show:

https://youtu.be/p0MdJ6KTdDw

The movie "The Duelists" is not about FENCING but about dueling. And not about épée (as a fencing tool) but about smallsword.

And more specifically about dueling TO THE DEATH.

One may say that the so called "duels" in your clip were real duels but they were nothing but sports fencing contests, like challenging an opponent to duel in a tennis match.
These "duels" were in fact sporting matches carried out with blunt fencing épées, like the ones used today in fencing sports. That's why you can clearly see that the "duels" concluded without anyone getting even slightly hurt, as the winner was simply the one who scored more points (touches of opponent's arms and torso).
However, on the rare occasions when the duels were carried out with sharp-point épées, then the purpose was to nick the arm of the opponent just to draw some blood.

Here is another, more choregraphed example of dueling with smallswords, done by well trained guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9SbU7YQYxA

PS: It must be noted that "épée" has different meanings in French and English. In French "épée" refers to generally any straight sword mainly used for thrusting (like rapiers and smallswords).
In English, the term is rather confusing and often misused, but the modern term refers to the tool used in fencing, that is heavier and bigger than the foil, like the swords in Batjka's video clip.