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Csaba Czene, Gergo Trocsanyi, Marc Bischoff, Istvan Gyuricza, Piroska Molnár ... see more see more... , Gabor Mate , Géza Hegedüs D. , Istvan Hunyadkurthy , Zoltán Koppány , Adel Stanczel , István Znamenák , Péter Blaskó

A strange young man takes his family's long tradition of bizarre behavior to new heights (or depths) in this wildly perverse and explicit horror comedy from director György Pálfi. Kálmán Balatony (Ger... read more read more...go 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. Taxidermia received its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Flixster Users

77% liked it

5,575 ratings

Critics

81% liked it

47 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 31 min.

Directed by: György Pálfi

Release Date: February 3, 2006

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DVD Release Date: March 23, 2010

Stats: 708 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (708)

  • 366weirdmovies
    April 30, 2010
    366weirdmovies
    A surrealist take on three generations of bizarre and perverted Hungarians: a horny army soldier (whose penis spouts fire), a competitive eater, and a taxidermist. It's technically well done and ranks high on the "I've never seen THAT before" weird grossout scale, but it lacks a... read more point and, just like its final exhibit, a heart.
  • kiriyamakazou
    February 4, 2009
    kiriyamakazou
    Disgusting at times but also beautiful in the way it is presented. A great visual style, wonderful lighting and an imaginative series of events leads to a film unlike most others. One scene involves a pop-up book come to life. A whole film should be shot this way as that single m... read moreoment was fantastic. Another great thing about this film is that you will see things you will never see anywhere else, such as a man shooting fire from his penis and a man having sex with a pig's carcass. This will be hard to stomach for some, and keeps it's comments on humanity buried beneth the surface. If you want to see some great vomiting sequences I suggest you watch Taxidermia. Foul, gross and weird, just like life. Well maybe a bit fouler, grosser and weirder than life.
  • gor41
    January 26, 2008
    gor41
    Bizarre visceral story of three ages of man which has some wonderful visual flourishes backed up with great sound. The middle story is laced with a dark humour but I'm not quite sure of the point of it all.
  • Saxia
    September 30, 2007
    Saxia
    Sick, disturbing and brilliant.
  • John2223
    April 23, 2011
    John2223
    "Taxidermia" follows three generations of some odd men in Hungary. It is a sub-real movie that is extremely well-made; great camera angles, style, acting, music, and effects, however, it is pretty disturbing and gross.
    Really good film, visually beautiful, stylish, bizarre and ... read moredisturbing.
  • patrickdol
    October 11, 2008
    patrickdol
    Brilliant, really. I mean the cinematography was amazing, it's filthy and gritty look were almost beautiful. The story didn't hold back, and if it did, well a lot slipped through. This film makes no apologies, it's grotesque and it knows it and that's what it wants to be.
    Try to ... read moretake your fucking eyes off of this once it starts.
  • cacutshaw
    December 25, 2007
    cacutshaw
    What a wonderful movie. Blood, guts and vomiting are some of the things you can anxiously look forward to when you pop this sucker in. The plot is involving 3 generations of losers in Hungary and the bleak existences they call lives. Kind of like an artier and gorier episode o... read moref Bottom. Highly recommended to fans of the bizarre and gross... like me..
    (wait did I just call myself bizarre and gross! Damn!)
  • pacardullo
    March 29, 2012
    pacardullo
    Surreal Hungarian film that uses the stories of three generations of men to comment on the history of Hungary from the end of WWII to the present. Beautifully shot, yet grotesque at the same time. But, it is not grotesque for its own sake. The gore, et al, is there in service to ... read morethe story. Well worth it.
  • sykora259517
    November 1, 2010
    sykora259517
    Let me tell ya Foreign movies REALLY work up to the point of it! Most of this movie didn?t even fit the title. To start you hear a male voice in (Russian?) which is louder than the translator (part of movie) after an hour & 15-20 minutes is where the Taxidermia part actually come... read mores in. Until this part I was getting bored. Although I will say the movie in a few ways is gross in various ways. Tho? the end is kinda artsy in a ?Bodies? (in Motion)Exibit sort of way. (its in NY city) for me was a waste of my Halloween. C (cause I?m not sure how to rate this one!)
  • HeroPK
    October 20, 2010
    HeroPK
    A bizarre and disgusting unique vision.

    *Spoiler* The guy performs a taxidermy on himself at the end on the movie. If you are not interested in the rest of the movie skip to the last 15 min on netflix streaming. It is one of those parts people will talk about.

View All Taxidermia Reviews

Critic Reviews

Eddie Cockrell
August 14, 2009
Eddie Cockrell, Variety

Taxidermia sets a benchmark for body horror in the cinema. Full Review

Kevin Thomas
August 14, 2009
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

Taxidermia is a brilliant, often grotesquely bizarre allegory on life in Hungary from World War II to the present, a surrealist fantasy exploring the limits of the body and its desires and altogether ... Full Review

V.A. Musetto
August 14, 2009
V.A. Musetto, New York Post

And now a word of advice from your friendly film critic: If you go to see the Hungarian black comedy Taxidermia, don't plan to eat afterward. Full Review

Stephen Holden
August 14, 2009
Stephen Holden, New York Times

Produces nightmarish horror and formal beauty in a surreal, Central European blend.

Ed Gonzalez
August 11, 2009
Ed Gonzalez, Village Voice

All this helps to shape Pálfi's crudely bombastic but impressive philosophical view of the body as landscape and art, a source of personal discovery, wonder, and annihilation. Full Review

Steven Rea
April 20, 2007
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

Visually dazzling and outlandishly obscene. Full Review

Duane Byrge
May 20, 2006
Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter

Tthose who reveled in such cinematic synapses as the eyeball being slit in Un Chien Andalou will gravitate toward this outrageous, and frequently hilarious, piece de film.

Christopher Long
May 1, 2010
Christopher Long, Movie Metropolis

The gluttonous middle section of the film is by far its most successful. Full Review

Philip Martin
April 11, 2010
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Surreal, grotesque and bitterly funny Hungarian art horror film ... aspires not to cult status as a torture porn totem but to the highest cinematic art.(It's not that, but give it points for trying.) Full Review

Sara Maria Vizcarrondo
August 28, 2009
Sara Maria Vizcarrondo, Boxoffice Magazine

As sweeping in scope and vision as it is in viscera. Full Review

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