Taxi to the Toilet

A film from the seventies, released in 1980, Taxi Zum Klo tells the story of a life divided by society and standards into two different parts, respectability by day and licentious indecency by night. An autobiographic account from Frank Ripploh who by day was the respectable and liked schoolteacher yet by night a hedonistic, sex seeking, public toilet inhabiting cruiser. The bulk of the story is taken with Frank's need and desire to hunt for the latest sexual conquest and encounters in risky and unsavoury places. He meets and falls for a theatre manager and they move in together, could this be the end of his hunting for sex in the underbelly of the very edge of Berlin society? Another question raises itself, does he manage to keep his seedy sex life out of the classroom, even if he does from time to time he has been known to mark students work in the public lavatories he inhabits hunting for his next slice of cock?

There was a lot of outrage surrounding this film at the time of its release, not least the refusal by many film censors to even allow it to be shown. Read more and find out where this film made it in the Top 50 Most Influential Gay Movies of All Time book, search on Amazon for Top 50 Most Influential Gay Movies of All Time.

I'd wanted to see this movie for years...a friend had recommended it highly as a comedy, as a gay classic, had made it sound like a farce...so finally I got hold of a copy and...

Described as an "erotic comedy" on the DVD cover? Whoever wrote that needs their head examining. Or maybe the comedy got lost in translation? It is not funny. Not funny in the slightest. Not unless you rofl over people wiping their bum on the guest towel in the bathroom for want of toilet paper...and, surprisingly, I don't!

Frank is a sex addict and bargain bin Al Parker wannabee who treats us all to a slice of his sad, tawdry life. He bonks his way through a series of clones who, on this outing, appear to be unduly influenced by the likes of porno classic Kansas City Trucking Company --but not just the cast, no, the production values as a whole are equally as cheap and dreary.

Cost a mere 100,000DMs to make? The money would have been better spent on therapy off camera for the lead actor/writer/director.

Distasteful and distressing. Watch it by all means. But a comedy it is not. A tragedy if you ask me. But when you are expecting one thing and get another it is never good.

I just watched the DVD of Taxi Zum Klo, some 25+ years after seeing the original in first release. I had forgotten how graphic and explicit the movie is. I almost wonder if the version I first saw (in the U.S.) was released intact. I didn't remember gay sex scenes clearly showing b/j's and penetration. Maybe I blocked them out.

The overall quality of the DVD is lacking. It's definitely a transfer from video, fuzzy and jumpy. The dim, white subtitles are an exercise in frustration. This groundbreaking film deserves better. I wonder if Criterion would have the balls to tackle it?

It's a good movie, clearly autobiographical. The story is a gay relationship in late 1970s Berlin. The main character, a teacher, struggles to reconcile his political conviction of sexual liberty and promiscuity with the more traditional lifestyle of his lover.

The style of the film is Cassavetes-like. We get the sense that the director--who is also the lead actor-- used his friends and lovers from "true life" to act along with him. Transitions are abrupt, and not always logical. The cinematography is literal and conventional, if not downright crude, but somehow it still manages to yield a couple of shots that are beautiful. The ending feels hurried and unfinished. And it's hard to escape the suspicion that the explicit sex is used primarily for shock value.

Nevertheless, this is an important film in gay cinema and one that anyone interested in the genre's development and history should see. The story line is the essential, if now stereotypical, dilemma of the modern gay male: do we emulate hetero straight values, or invent a new socio-political lifestyle for ourselves? It is a theme repeated in countless other gay films, but never as directly or as raw as it was here, just as a gay cinema was beginning.

i watched this film on film4 after the customary warnings from the announcers and the person who introduced it (mark kermode) after listening to what he said i thought lets watch it anyway, thank god, a person who makes films with good content and not afraid to add in explicit content, as an adult i was glad that i had the choice to watch such a film and not have it cut by the censors. an excellent film, worth watching. anybody wanting to learn about the secret lives many gay men have to live to have their sexuality kept secret should watch this film, it is an eye opener, we now live in the 2000's and the world has to open up to different sexuality, and not keep denigrating it, watch this film with open eyes and open your heart to the guys in the film, not all gay men act like this but secrecy is always to the fore especially for people like teachers, who a lot of people would put down if they were found out to be gay.

"Taxi zum Klo" does not enjoy that great a reputation, due to its explicitness and "amoral" (some would say "immoral") values. Yet, I have the feeling that this film, while by no means great, is not all that bad either. The director-star chose to bare his sentiments in this public forum, and has done so with forthrightness. I picked this film in video form from the shelves of a public library. This suggests that given the passing of time, it will be even more readily available, and that viewers will take it all rather routinely. The film has a point of view and an honesty to it. The leading character may not be one's personal choice for a "hero," yet the fact that this is reportedly autobiographical allows the viewer individual options. As for the film's being "banned," this promises to be yet another futile effort in censorship, which seems largely based on the personal fears of the censors. One thing is for sure, once one sees "Taxi zum Ko," one never quite forgets it.