Taxidermia (2007) Synopsis:
An extraordinarily uncommon tale that uses special effects to track three generations of men, including an obese award-winning speed eater, an embalmer of enormous cats and a man who shoots fire out of his penis.
Taxidermia (2007) Movie Review:
This Hungarian film is reminiscent of early Jeunet & Caro (Delicatessen) in its willingness to get both surreal and grotesque. Besides playing for laughs, filmmaker Pálfi is clearly making a provocative social comment.
It's a story of three generations. Vendel (Czene) is a sex-starved soldier constantly tempted by the giggly daughters of his demanding commander (Gyuricza). Alas, Vendel instead impregnates his boss' enormous wife (Molnár), who gives birth to a chubby son Kalman (Trócsányi). He becomes a champion sport-eater with hopes of taking his discipline to the Olympics alongside his equally plump wife Gizi (Stanczel). But their son Lajos (Bischoff) is disappointingly skinny. He grows up to be a taxidermist with a plan to create the ultimate specimen, which will give his family a permanent place in history.
This film dwells strongly on bodily functions of every imaginable kind. The camera explores bodies of every shape and size, colouring skin with fire and ice, water and blood. It's almost overwhelmingly physical, and it'd be unbearable without the wit, irony and jet-black humour. Not to mention a surprising sweetness in these characters' deep desires to connect with each other.
This is stylish, outrageous filmmaking that challenges our concepts of youth, beauty, vitality and mortality. And it overflows with imagination. We never have a clue what's going to happen--or what extreme imagery we'll see--next. Pálfi's camera swoops and swirls through the garish settings, even as it adds meaning and resonance to people, places and objects. The effects work is inventive and eye-popping, adding an otherworldly tone that draws us in then grosses us out over and over again.
The story has an ageless fairy tale quality that occasionally intersects with real time and space, such as when Gizi takes her sport-eating team to the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, or when we catch a glimpse of a Michael Jackson poster mischievously hanging in Lajos' chop shop. It's one of the most astonishing, energetic, chaotic films you'll ever see. And best of all, it could make you decide to give up the diet forever.
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Taxidermia (2007) review written by: Rich Cline
7th October, 2008 
