Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 8.0 | 3/34 | Countries 3/6 | Hungary The film follows three men during different periods in Hungary’s history
Morosgoványi Vendel is an orderly during WWII. He is painfully horny, relying on the heat of a candle to feel warmth or the chill of the icy water on his penis for some reason
His lieutenant, the homeowner, gives him an endless list of menial chores.
He also spies on the lieutenant’s wife, Irma, and their two daughters, watching them bathe and shit.
His imagination takes over his reality as he imagines being a hero to a cold child or, more concretely, fucking Irma — in reality, he was fucking a butchered pig.
Somehow, this impregnates Irma, and she gives birth to a son, Balatony Kálmán
Kálmán grows up to be a speed eater during the Cold War. He performs for a crowd and the Soviet military, eating massive quantities of food. After they finish, all the men go to a pool where their trainers massage them while they puke in preparation for the next round.
Aczél Gizi, one of the other champions, cheers him on, and he decides that he will marry her. The two elope and have Balatony Lajoska
Lajoska grows up to be a taxidermist in modern-day Hungary. Kálmán has eaten himself into a sedentary existence in front of the TV, where he watches old eating competitions and trains his cats in eating.
Kálmán is embarrassed by Lajoska’s thin frame, chastising him. But one day, Lajoska accidentally leaves the door to the cat cage open, and they eat Kálmán.
This movie has the most human viscera I’ve seen in a film, culminating in a scene where a guy taxidermies himself by surgically removing all his organs. We watch tissue and muscle cut into, and the camera lingers on the internals.
I’m sure the grotesque nature of the film is crucial to the socio-political critiques at the core of the movie. But I don’t have much familiarity with Hungary’s history beyond the broad strokes, so any analysis on my part would be shallow.
I can say that the film focuses on the body — its desires, its abuse, its use and exploitation by higher powers, and its image a pale reflection of the character within.
The film ends with the camera entering a belly — perhaps the film acknowledging its navel-gazing.
Amon Tobin’s score is tight — perfectly cold and edgy, with traditional music undertones.
Don’t watch this unless you have a high tolerance for gross stuff.
I would probably like it more if I knew its deeper meanings, but it was still a bizarre and compelling way to spend 90 minutes.