Taxidermia (2006)

Even the excesses of "A Zed and Two Noughts" below could not have prepared me for the body horror of my first London Film Festival screening.  I chose this movie since I was very taken with the Hungarian director, Gyorgy Palfi, and his first feature length film "Hukkle", a virtually silent effort with only ambient noise -- mainly hiccups -- and the hint of murder in an idyllic community.  This film is his sophomore effort and one that will undoubtedly gain cult status, but only among those cinema-goers with very strong stomachs.  The opening shot of a penis shooting out flames set the tone for the explicit sex, regurgitation, and mutilation to follow.  The film covers three generations of Hungarian men.  The first is a lowly soldier who after various hysterical attempts at masturbation manages to impregnate his superior's wife.  She gives birth to a baby with a pig's tail who grows up to be a competitive eater, a sport for which he craves Olympic status.  The scenes here of gross men stuffing their faces and then vomiting are frankly sick-making, albeit hilarious.  He and his equally obese wife produce a sickly child who grows up to be a taxidermist; that is he stuffs animals rather than himself with food.  However he craves his own form of recognition, which he achieves by turning his body into a work of art (in the Damien Hurst sense) which will stand forever as proof of the taxidermist's artistry.  Only the stout-hearted need apply...