13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"I have a high art: I wound with cruelty those who wound me.", August 29, 2006
This review is from: Exposure (aka High Art) [VHS] (VHS Tape)
The above quote opens the film "Exposure" (also known as "A Grande Arte"), a well-crafted if somewhat low-key thriller that involves the equally fascinating and repulsive subculture of knife fighting.
Peter Mandrake (Peter Coyote) is a photographer working on assembling a coffee table book of photographs about Rio de Janeiro. The book is to cover the dark and less 'tourist friendly' side of Rio--having nothing to do with the wildly costumed and intoxicating festival atmosphere of Carnivale. Rather, his black and white photos showcase criminals, derelicts, people in crisis, prostitutes, pimps and train surfers (adrenaline junkies that climb up onto the tops of trains, riding them like a surfboard, dodging cables and overhangs).
As he moves about the seamier and more squalid neighborhoods in Rio, Peter becomes casual friends with one of his models, a pretty young prostitute/masseuse named Gisela (Giulia Gam). When Gisela asks Peter to accompany her while she returns a computer disk belonging to one of her more dangerous clients, Gisella winds up being horribly murdered and Peter is mistakenly identified as her blackmailing accomplice. Afterwards, Peter and his girlfriend, Marie (Amanda Pays), are savagely attacked in their apartment by knife-wielding thugs in search of the elusive computer disk.
Traumatized by the near-death knife wound he receives, Peter wants vengeance in kind. To dispatch his and Marie's attackers with a gun simply won't do; it must be with a knife. To this end, he tracks down Hermes (Tcheky Karyo), an elusive and mysterious professional assassin, who Peter saw earlier in a to-the-death knife fight in the street. Hermes is a per-sev (short for 'perforate and sever') or Knife Master. He reluctantly agrees to train Peter and finds an enthusiastic and obsessed pupil. The training sessions are some of the most morbidly fascinating scenes in the movie. Hermes maps out the body's kill zones with lipstick on a mirror where Peter practices slashing and stabbing. They also practice the offensive and defensive maneuvering techniques required to inflict the maximum amount of damage on the opponent. Peter then sets out to track down his assailants.
Before watching this movie, I didn't know there was an actual art to knife fighting. I simply thought that you attempted to cut the other guy while trying not getting cut yourself. The stylized choreography of the knife fights does have a certain elegance and fascination. The cinematography is also quite striking, and the diverse countryside of both Brazil and Bolivia is visually arresting. The seasoned and capable actors elevate what could have otherwise been a rather mediocre thriller. However, this film will probably still have a rather narrow and specific audience appeal.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Waiting for the DVD, July 17, 2009
This review is from: Exposure (aka High Art) [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I enjoyed this film and its handling of knife techniques. It led me to seek out training in Arnis and other Philippine arts. Now I just wonder when it will be available in DVD. Its hard to believe nobody has released it yet.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Few Films Showing Authentic Filipino Martial Arts, May 18, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Exposure (aka High Art) [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This review is here to correct the misguided comments of "Syber Ronin" who insists that the knife fighting featured in this movie is Spanish in origin. According to IMDB (http://us.imdb.com/Credits?0101834), the knife fighting advisor to this film is Christopher Kent. Kent - who is a student of Dan Inosanto - is a teacher of the Filipino martial arts. The basic techniques and the numbering system that are shown in this film are common to several Filipino Arnis systems. While there are knife fighting systems still alive in Spain, they are not featured in this film...
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