''Taxidermia'' is a 2006 Hungarian

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed and co-written by

György Pálfi György Pálfi (born 11 April 1974 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Hungarian filmmaker. His film ''Taxidermia'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Pálfi's films have received numerous awards and nominatio ...

. An

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture between two or more different production companies for the purpose of film production, television production, video game development, and so on. In the case of an international co-production, production companies ...

of Hungary, Austria and France, the film spins a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

ical socio-political retelling of Hungary's history from the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to the present day. With elements of

dark comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

and

body horror Body horror or biological horror is a subgenre of horror that intentionally showcases grotesque or psychologically disturbing violations of the human body. These violations may manifest through aberrant sex, mutations, mutilation, zombification, ...

, the story is told by means of three generations of Hungarian men, commencing with a WWII military orderly, moving on to a

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

-era aspiring speed-eater, and concluding with a modern day

taxidermist Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proce ...

. It received positive reviews.

Plot

At a remote Hungarian military outpost, orderly Morosgoványi Vendel lives a wretched existence of servitude beneath the heel of his lieutenant, Öreg Balatony Kálmán. Condemned to performing menial duties for the officer and his family while sleeping in an unheated shack next to the latrines, Morosgoványi frequently escapes into fantasy. So realistic are these fantasies that in one ambiguous instance, Morosgoványi sleeps with and impregnates the lieutenant's wife and "wakes up" to find himself engaged in an act of sodomy with a slaughtered pig. Upon seeing this, the lieutenant promptly executes Morosgoványi and raises the son, Balatony Kálmán, as his own. Decades later, Kálmán has grown into a champion Hungarian speed-eater. Coached and influenced by the strict Jenő, Kálmán's life revolves around training for the eventual day when the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

recognizes speed-eating as a legitimate sport. After a bout of lockjaw at a Soviet event and eloping with fellow speed-eating champion Aczél Gizi, Kálmán resumes his rigorous training, even as Gizi gives birth to their son, Balatony Lajoska. Some years later, Lajoska has grown into a dedicated, professional taxidermist. In contrast to both his parents' girth, Lajoska appears pale and impoverished, with a thin anemic frame and haunted visage. When not working from his taxidermy shop or failing in his attempts to lead a normal life, Lajoska purchases groceries for his father Kálmán, who has grown so monstrously obese that he cannot leave the chair in his claustrophobic apartment. Kálmán, who feeds butter to his caged cats, has nothing but harsh words for his son who, upon reaching his breaking point, abandons his father to his own prison. Returning later, he discovers that the cats have escaped their cages and, desiring meat, have eviscerated his father. Lajoska stuffs his father and the cats. With little left to live for, he locks himself in a homemade surgical harness and through the use of sedatives, painkillers and a heart-lung machine, begins removing his own internal organs. Pumping his body full of preservatives and sewing himself up, he activates the machine that decapitates him, leaving behind a preserved statue. His body is displayed in an exhibit alongside the cats and his father.

Cast

* Csaba Czene as Morosgoványi Vendel * Gergely Trócsányi as Balatony Kálmán *

Piroska Molnár Piroska Molnár (born 1 October 1945) is a Hungarian actress. She has appeared in more than one hundred films since 1967. Selected filmography References External links * 1945 births Living people Hungarian film actresses { ...

as Hadnagyné * Adél Stanczel as Aczél Gizi * Marc Bischoff as Balatony Lajoska * István Gyuricza as Hadnagy * Gábor Máté as Öreg Balatony Kálmán * Zoltán Koppány as Miszlényi Béla *

Erwin Leder Erwin Alois Robert Leder (born 30 July 1951 in St. Pölten, Lower Austria, Austria) is an Austrian actor. He is best known for his role as Chief Mechanic Johann in ''Das Boot'', a 1982 feature film directed by Wolfgang Petersen about a mission ...

as Krisztián * Éva Kuli as Leóna * Lajos Parti Nagy as Dédnagypapa * Attila Lőrinczy as Pap * Mihály Pálfi as Baba

Music

The film features music scored by electronic artist

Amon Tobin Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin (born February 7, 1972), known as Amon Tobin (), is a Brazilian electronic musician, composer and producer. He is noted for his unusual methodology in sound design and music production. He has released eight ...

, released on his 2012 compilation ''

Boxset A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists and bands ...

''. It additionally contains music written by the band Hollywoodoo during the end credits. The song is entitled "Erdő" (translated as "Forest") and is from the album "Karmolok, harapok" released in 2004, which directly translated from Hungarian to English means "I Scratch, I Bite". The music video is directed by Pálfi and contains many scenes from the film including copies of scenes containing various band members.

Release

''Taxidermia'' premiered at the Hungarian Film Festival on 3 February 2006 before screening in the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

section at the

2006 Cannes Film Festival The 59th Cannes Film Festival was held from 17 to 28 May 2006. Twenty films from eleven countries were in competition for the Palme d'Or. The President of the Official selection Jury was Wong Kar-wai, the first Chinese director to preside over the ...

. It opened in France through Memento Films on 23 August 2006, Hungary on 9 November, and Austria (also in Hungary) through Pool Filmverlieh on 9 February 2007. The film received a theatrical release, albeit limited, in the United States on 14 August 2009. It was released in two venues by

Regent Releasing Regent Releasing was a U.S. theatrical distribution company based in Los Angeles, California, under the umbrella of Regent Entertainment, which was owned by producers Paul Colichman (formerly of IRS Media) and Stephen P. Jarchow. Focusing on nar ...

and grossed $11,408.

Critical reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 81% based on 47 reviews, with an

average rating In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 6.68/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Surreal and visually striking, ''Taxidermia'' is, at times, graphic and difficult to watch, but creatively touches on disturbing subjects with imagination and wit." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Deloret Imnidian of High on Films Website writes "''Taxidermia'' is a delicious film for those who can digest it." in hi
4.5 star rated review
of the film.

References

Taxidermia Review on High on Films

External links

* (US) * (Hungary) * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Taxidermia 2006 films 2006 comedy-drama films 2006 horror films Hungarian comedy-drama films Hungarian horror films Austrian comedy-drama films Austrian horror films French comedy-drama films French horror films 2000s Hungarian-language films 2000s English-language films 2000s Russian-language films Films directed by György Pálfi 2006 black comedy films Body horror films Films shot in Hungary Films shot in Budapest Hungarian independent films 2006 comedy horror films 2006 comedy films 2006 multilingual films Hungarian multilingual films Austrian multilingual films French multilingual films 2000s French films