The film is a documentary about an art installation called ‘Sculpting the Body’, at which the American-nationalised actor was the central figure and presented as a form of living artwork
The Art of Bodybuilding! can be viewed in session 6 of the festival at www.festivalfilmets.cat
The FILMETS Badalona Film Festival presents another cinematic rarity in this year’s edition, which runs until the 25th of October. The festival is showing the short film The Art of Bodybuilding!, an 8-minute documentary directed by Babeth VanLoo, which recycles the original 16 mm raw material filmed by VanLoo himself during the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding contest.
The contest, held in 1977, was part of a sadly lost art installation, ‘Sculpting the Body’, of which Arnold Schwarzennegger, then Mister Universe, was the central figure. In that art installation, the actor was presented as a form of living artwork.
The short includes an interview with the legendary actor
Babeth VanLoo’s new and recent montage takes advantage of those initial recordings and combines them with footage from an immediately subsequent interview with Raymond Mondini. Because there was no synchronisation between sound and image, the content of the interview is transcribed on screen.
The documentary shows the legendary and originally Austrian but American-nationalised actor at the beginning of his career when he was still largely unknown. Those days were a long way off from the popular classic Terminator.
The screening of The Art of Bodybuilding! at the FILMETS festival is the film’s première in Catalonia and, indeed, the whole of Spain.
It can be viewed in session 6 of the festival. As with all other films in the FILMETS competition, film fans can register online to view the documentary at www.festivalfilmets.cat.
