Directed by:
György PálfiCinematography:
Gergely PohárnokCast:
Csaba Czene, Gergely Trócsányi, Adél Stanczel, Marc Bischoff, Erwin Leder, Maria Bodor, István Znamenák, Piroska Molnár, Réka Lemhényi, Gyula Kiss (more)Plots(1)
Kálmán Balatony (Gergo Trócsányi) is a grotesquely fat gentleman who was fathered by an angry hospital orderly getting revenge on his boss by having sex with his wife. While the embittered husband killed the orderly when he was caught in the act, Kálmán was born as a result of the wife's indiscretion, and when he grows to adulthood he earns a modest fame as a competitive eating champion. At an eating contest, Kálmán meets a female competitor, the freakish Gizi (Adél Stanczel), and the two fall in love. Kálmán and Gizi marry, and she gives birth to a son, Lajos (Marc Bischoff), who grows up to be just as skinny as his parents are fat. Lajos studies taxidermy and takes up preserving animals as a career when he isn't busy taking care of his elderly and increasingly massive father. Lajos also raises a handful of unusually large house cats, and when they begin to turn on their master, Lajos uses his talents to keep them around the house without the danger of their bothering anyone. (Tartan Video)
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Reviews (6)
Taxidermia is proof that even movie decadence can be beautiful in a rather twisted way. Unfortunately, the makers remained somewhere half way up the path and the result is a hybrid that is neither sufficiently extreme, nor sufficiently movie-like. Apart from the marvelous visuals, the first tale offers nothing and is just hollow filling. The second is actually absolutely outstanding to start of with, but after the excellent “sporty" into follows a less good ending and the whole thing just seems to fizzle out. Although the last tale is the most well-balanced of all, it isn’t enough to save to rather puzzling impression of a missed opportunity. You can’t deny that the makers had fresh ideas, excellent techs and very fine camerawork. All the same, I would expect rather more from such an ambitious project like this that just a movie that is more interesting than actually being of any quality.
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I may sound like a creep, but the modern world, not to mention cinema itself, needs films like Taxidermia. An amoral, twisted, nihilistic and utterly fascinating mockery and disfigurement of the three basic essences of human life that, despite its strict artistic detachment, is impossible to tear your eyes away from, and which offers so many moral clues and messages that a more accessible possible remake should be made by Ingmar Bergman from beyond the grave – I'm exaggerating, of course, but this film simply deserves your attention. It will probably disgust you and kick you into the private parts of your mind, but if you can at least appreciate the construction of the film as a narrative tool or the brilliant camera work, the attention management or spatiotemporal interweaving of motifs or entire story blocks, Taxidermia will at least engage and absorb you in a healthy way – and make you throw up :D 80%
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The fact that a film is part of Projekt 100 does not automatically guarantee that it will be of value. Just because a film is presented as a "distorted mirror of the era and society" does not necessarily mean that it truly is. For me, this Hungarian goulash is just a random mess without any meaningful message, but whoever absolutely must find something more in it in welcome to it.
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Fans of film escapades, intellectual experiments, and depressive decadence can rejoice, whereas I just shrug my shoulders and say: I mostly missed the point of Taxidermia. The film is divided into three parts, and only the middle part can stand on its own as a bizarre satire on the training of athletes who sacrifice everything for success. Although Pálfi made a real effort to provoke and extract the maximum from the aesthetics of disgust, I couldn't help but feel bored at certain stages, and as a whole, the film disappointed me in terms of content, as it's too self-indulgent and a manneristic affair. Overall impression: 40%.
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The film started off looking like German porn, then turned into a philosophical drama. The Hungarian filmmakers clearly demonstrated that humankind evolved from Mangalica pigs and the subsequent plot was further evidence of that. All that competitive eating must have been hard to stomach not just for the competitors but many viewers as well. The final part was a nice transition to the horror genre. I will be keeping a close eye on both my cats from now on. Overall, I had a great time, and the Hungarians pleasantly surprised me again.
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