Body Odyssey is the debut feature film of Italian director Grazia Tricarico. It is about Mona (Jacqueline Fuchs), an aging female bodybuilder obsessed with a specific muscular ideal of perfection and beauty. She is training for the Miss Universe competition. Mona’s doctor warns her that years of steroid use are beginning to have disastrous effects on her health. She insists she knows how to use them safely. Her punishing, intense trainer Kurt (Julian Sands) suggests that stronger substances are needed to meet their bodybuilding goals. Initially, she resists.
Eventually, she concedes, and when they get their hands on the latest next-level muscle-enhancing steroids, everything goes pear-shaped as her mind begins to erode. Many men are drawn to Mona’s hyper-muscular physique, and she has no shortage of admirers who want to be physical with her. Sex is a physical release for her, though she longs for a deeper connection. She begins an affair with the under-aged Nic (Adam Misík), fantasizing that it will become a real relationship, not driven by a muscle fetish. She punishes herself with ever more intense workouts, fasting before a competition, and seemingly always falls short of Kurt’s standards for results.
“[Mona] is training for the Miss Universe competition…”
Mona’s inner voice is a low, barely articulate moan that keeps up a running commentary on her body and those around her, metaphorically narrating her situation as she goes. This may be her body speaking to her. The proceedings dip into magical realism from time to time. Those that Mona encounters who aren’t familiar with bodybuilding are stunned by her appearance. Her body is on display at all times, and everyone gawks and feels entitled to touch her.
Somewhere out there between the two worlds of Cronenberg and Lynch, Tricarico has set up an outpost for Body Odyssey. The cinematography is as gloriously dark and distorted as the story, and these grim visions are driven home by a soundtrack that grinds like demons growling behind a steel gate. The shadows are stark and garish, threatening every frame, with only occasional splashes of light and color. The film prosecutes a multi-front assault on the viewer’s senses. Tricarico challenges concepts of femininity, masculinity, identity, sexual orientation, and the subjectivity of beauty, all wrapped in a candy-coated shell of obsession and delusion. The fetish-level infatuation with body sculpting as a modification is explored with an intensity that is almost sexual.
Tricarico spoke about meeting Fuchs as an inspiration for making the film, in an interview with the Tallinn Black Nights film festival: “…we met in person in Rome … Jay has a sweetness, a solar energy, and a positivity that comes through surprisingly, creating an intriguing contrast with her physique. This complexity of hers instantly captivated me and certainly influenced the writing of the film.” It is noteworthy that this, sadly, was one of the last performances of accomplished veteran actor Julian Sands, who died in 2023 on a hike in California.
Body Odyssey is a cinematic masterwork, balancing surreal body horror and delicate emotions, and that it is also Tricarico’s debut feature is nothing short of astonishing.
"…a cinematic masterwork, balancing surreal body horror and delicate emotions..."
