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Three generations, three obsessions, three tales of body horror.
In an isolated outpost Vendel spends his time spying on the
over corpulent females and masturbating into greased up holes
in the wall. When he finally gains the object of his desire,
he gets his head blown off. His progeny grows to be a champion
eater whose own son becomes a taxidermist. Stuffing of one
form or another is very popular in this family...
Taxidermia
(2006) was directed by Gyorgy Palfi. To say it was well received
would be an understatement as the film won a total of seven
awards. It is such a visual assault that you're either going
to love this film or spend a whole lot of time staring into
a sick bucket.
Taxidermia
explores the same themes of body horror so beloved of David
Cronenberg, but whilst Cronenberg tends to either infer this,
or transpose this to the realms of fantasy, Taxidermia
shoves it straight in your face. I would have said that it
was a poetic exploration of the darker side of peoples relationship
with their bodies, on the other hand my wife's reaction was
that this was f*cked up weird sh*t that would give her the
jitters for weeks. I think that the reason for this rather
indelicate appraisal of the films visual style is that it
stays this side of fantasy, making it all the more real and
horrific.
The
film is in three sections following the adventure of the father,
grandfather and son. In the first section Vendel (Csaba Czene)
lives a life of unrelenting unpleasantness, not helped by
his foul mouthed boss, Hadnagy (Istvan Gyuricza). Of course
you should never shag the boss's wife, a piece of advice that
Vendel ignores and gets his head blown off.
The
action moves on a few years to Vendel's son Kalman, played
by Gergo Trocsanyi, who has found his place in life by becoming
a champion speed eater and is married to another eater Giza,
played by Adel Stanczel.
Shoot
forward another couple of decades and we find their poor son,
Lajos, is condemned to look after his father - who is now
the size of Monty Python's Mr. Creosote. Unable to
move, he sits in one room being constantly supplied with food
by his taxidermist son. Following an argument, Kalman's equally
huge cats escape and consume part of him. In a fit of guilt
Lajos stuffs his father before stuffing himself, whilst still
alive.
The
film is a sort of Hostel
meets Monty Python - if you can imagine the Mr. Creosote
sketch stretched to the length of a film, and then adding
in every gross view of the human body you can think off, you
would still just be scratching the surface. It's hard to think
of the grossest thing, possibly the fetus being turned into
a key ring; Lajos removing his own innards; or a penis being
pecked by a hen. They all have a place in my memory now.
The
film comes with little in the way of extras, except for the
theatrical trailer. Audio is stereo, 5.1 or DTS with English
subtitles. Picture is crisp and clean.
Obviously,
given the content, the film is going to be a love it or hate
it affair, but I guarantee if you watch it, it will be an
experience you'll remember.
Charles
Packer
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