Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

barevfilm Taxidermia. Hungary 2006 Viewed at the 2006 Magyar film week. (filmszemle) New Hungarian features on view here range from the utterly ridiculous to the utterly sublime. At the ridiculous extreme is "TAXIDERMIA" by "Hukkle" director Pálfi György, while on the sublime side of the spectrum is the ethereally sensuous "The Bird Saviour, Clouds and Wind", by first time director István "Taikyo" Szaladják. "Taxidermia" doesn't have much to do with the art of taxidermy (although a taxidermist does make a brief appearance toward the end), but has everything to do with force feeding of fat people, voluminous streams of regurgitation, masochistic self-torture with candle flames, and graphically disgusting butchering of a pig. It seems that upcoming young director Pálfi is out to make an indelible impression on the local film scene by outdoing John Waters in shock effect, Bunuel in acid satire, and Peter Greenaway in sheer disgust. Missing from his film, however, is Waters' sense of humor, Bunuel's subtlety, and Greenaways erudition. The film starts out with a long dark sequence involving a sexually perverted soldier who revels in tickling the tenderest portions of his anatomy with candle flames when not engaged in other acts of sexual aberration with a constantly turgid purple penis. He is ordered about by a screaming, sadistic unteroffizier of some sort, which is perhaps meant to be a wry commentary on military discipline but comes off as a wry commentary on nothing. Fortunately this gruesome soldat is killed off with a quick bullet to the head some twenty minutes into the picture, whereupon we segue into the main part of the film -- a series of public gluttony competitions in which extremely obese people slop up messes of food from wooden trowels as fast as they can -- sloshing their faces in the mess as they go -- and then, with the help of assistants, vomit it all out as fast as they can, to get ready for another round of ravenous scarfing -- and then another round of puking ... and so forth. We focus on a particular extra fat couple who apparently are vying for the sloppiest scarfers in the world title, and they have a professional trainer to hone their skills. Somewhere in between there is a graphic hog vivisection where the hot steaming innards are pulled out in full camera close-up, and then the bloody butchered carcass is blackened over an outdoor fire. Perhaps this is meant to be a sardonic comment on the primitive ritual of Pig Killing (diszno ölés) traditional in many Hungarian villages at certain times of the year. On and on it goes -- more gluttony, more vomiting, and lots of blood and guts whenever possible. Personally I had gotten the basic message after the third or fourth stream of hot vomit --very realistically done, I must say, with none of the conventional gentility of ordinary films when a character gets sick to his stomach -- and considered hitting the exit several times long before the halfway mark, but for some reason, maybe just an excercise in patience and self discipline, I decided to stick it out until the bitter end, just to see how much vomit I could take without flinching -- and I did finally make it. If this was supposed to be a black comedy I did not hear a single chuckle the entire time, although oddly enough, there were no walkouts from the packed theater. A kind of mass hypnotism or something -- who can say? I was told later that some people actually liked the movie, or at least thought it was interesting. I guess even in Hungary "different strokes for different folks" is a valid bromide. I am most curious to see what kind of business this film will do in the commercial cinemas when and if it is released, or escapes. So much for the ridiculous. By the way, the music wasn't bad ... and, come to think of it, just for the cachet attached to the director's name and the blatant in-your-faceness of it all, "Taxidermia" may pack its way into some festivals -- especially the ones dedicated to horror and bad taste.

Danny McChicken Taxidermia is an acquired taste, filled with visceral dismemberment, explicit sex and psychological sickness. But while many will complain about these portions and quickly consider this another controversial gore fest, It is actually a rather incredible film. It's beautifully shot, incorporating never before seen shots and a very distinct style. Its nicely acted and also has some of the best black humour I have seen in a long time. The story seems rather weak on first viewings but after several re-watches, patterns emerge and some clever political satire pokes through, questioning modern life and what talent is. All in All, Its a film that deserves praise, but is quite unlikely to ever see it.

iminemeth Contrary to common belief, this film actually portrays three consecutive eras of Hungarian historical reality using visually shocking symbolism. The film starts with the final days of fascism where one oppressive extreme gives birth to an other directly opposite on the political scale. Communism was the bastard child of fascism, however there was a few years of discontinuity, hence the man of the flaming penis getting executed after laying his seed in the pig-woman. Why the flaming penis? Great 'balls' of fire, literally, enflaming the globe resulting in war of a global scale. The great jizz in the sky and paedophile fairytale setting-A self delusion thinking you can 'F' the world and manipulating your own population to further grotesque goals...Here little girl, put your hand over my heart. In all reality, it was a system that gave the big 'F' to its own people. The second generation is the era of pig-boy, eating with both hands, consuming all he can and more. In historical terms it is what was once labeled as "Goulash Communism". After the '56 Hungarian uprising, communist leaders made the country the 'Happiest barrack', to avoid more trouble with the ever restless Hungarians. It was a communist style "Let the Hungarian eat cake". A nice touch in the film when the eating champion is told ahead that the Soviet will be the first and he himself can be second. Reality was, that as long as there is no '56 style open challenge to the system, you can have your private Hungarian world,within the barrack, as you like it. The third generation is the taxidermist making a living out of prepping/propping up the decaying system. In all reality, there was no real political change in Hungary following the downfall of communism. Yes, communism ended in nominal terms, but the same leaders and their cronies stayed and held onto power. Working together with multinational companies, the World Bank and IMF, they successfully stuffed their own pockets while wrecking the local economy and enslaving the population. If you notice, the taxidermist is pale, almost bloodless with a fragile, sickly body. He lives alone among the stuffed animals-relics of the past. He is unable to attract the woman he likes-society of alienated individuals. He works out, almost fanatical, like a hamster locked in a ferris-wheel-expand all your energy, you will still never get ahead way. He still labours on and feeds his ungrateful father-the ever present oligarchs, the corrupt system that never ended, just got worse with the passage of time. The father fattens up cats kept behind bars, but when the gate is left open in a careless moment, the cats consume his gut. The symbol of fat cats: Bankers are often depicted as fat cats. Here the film comes full circle. It starts with Fascism and ironically the true definition of Fascism is the marriage of state and industry, business;in modern terms-Globalism: Fascism on a global scale. Political systems on the extreme are ultimately self-destructing, but not before they destroy their host society. At the end, the father is prepped with the cats displayed protruding from his gut-the system that literally ate itself. The doctor with the foetus is an abortionist. The tiny foetus, still in its embryonic state sports a pig tail. Pigboy and the system he represents is nothing more than a kitschy key-chain...the Hungarian population is also one of the fastest declining. The taxidermist preps himself in a 'Statue of David' style and his remains are admired in a futuristic setting by an artsy crowd-no future. It is self-sacrifice at the altar of utter helplessness. The missing head and arm-His knowledge alone was not enough to save him and his right hand-hand of righteousness, justice, itself. All that is left is a stuffed torso in the style of 'David', yet eerily reminiscent of the stuffed scarecrow of OZ. No heart, no brain, but all the knowledge and feelings of the world. A once great nation, a once great people, like so many before them, are reduced to a sideshow. Hungarians are not alone in this process. We can see the same unfolding in many countries the world over. Western societies are on a long decline as the ebb and tide of expansion and prolonged contraction of societies carries on.Why 9 out of 10? Simply put, perfection is a figment of imagination. Here is the long version: I feel, most of the meaning-symbolism gets lost on people raised on a steady diet of Hollywood and most see the sensationalistic, the grotesque, the demented and the fantastic without being able to put everything into context. Such people are not able to process the story presented the way it was meant to be. This film is filled with grotesque and disgusting scenes which is both culturally and historically specific. It was the only possible way to depict the full depth of the horror of past eras culminating in the present. Hungarians are disgusted and do think, all that is going on is a grotesque freak-show and this is what this film is all about. There are also discreet hungarianisms, puns and references that those not living in the culture would have difficulty noticing. At the end, such viewers see attention grubbing sensationalism only and either they love it purely for its visual effects or hate it, because they find it simply disgusting.

zetes Revolting work of a kind of classic European surrealist, deeply symbolist cinema. It kind of revels in disgustingness, the kind of disgustingness that makes it notable. But in the end, it all feels much ado about nothing. Taxidermia is made up of three parts, each representing three generations of a Hungarian family (and each generation symbolizing Hungary in the era in which it is set). The first takes place after WWII, where a perverted, cleft-lip soldier masturbates over a couple of cuties who wander about (he also shoots fire out of his penis -surely symbolizing something, but who cares what). He can only lay the local fat woman, though, and a slaughtered sow. The second generation is represented by a competitive eater. As gross as the first third of the film is, the second part was worse for me because it had about ten minutes of scenes where people were vomiting. I can put up with bestiality/necrophilia, but vomit is where I draw the line! The third section is almost a relief after the first two: the competitive eater's son is an expert taxidermist. His father is still alive, looking sort of like Jabba the Hutt, and he dominates his son's life, angry because his son didn't follow in his own footsteps, instead becoming a scrawny little man. The images throughout are certainly intriguing, but, after a while, it all looked like a particularly interesting heavy metal video.