A three-course ordeal of icky sex, Olympian gluttony, and autoerotic dismemberment, Gyorgy Palfi?s Taxidermia is consistently vile. Yet it?s also a sustained, unique work of art, and well worth the mess. A triptych, the first two sections of which are based on stories by Hungarian writer Lajos Parti Nagy (the third is an original story by Palfi and his wife, Zsofia Ruttkay, and they also cowrote the screenplay), the film chronicles three generations of men led and tormented by primal desires. A nervous, reclusive World War II soldier can?t control his burning sexual urges; his hulking son, a competitive speed eater in postwar Hungary, ravenously pursues success and respect; and a haunted grandson cares for his now massive, immobile father and plans for the ultimate in taxidermal preservation. Taxidermia operates as fable but communicates in viscera, a bracing contravention of flesh and fantasy.
via Reverse Shot
