''Taxi zum Klo'' is a 1981 film written by, directed by, and starring

Frank Ripploh Frank Ripploh (September 2, 1949 – June 24, 2002) was a German actor, film director, and author. He is best remembered for his semi-autobiographical 1980 film ''Taxi zum Klo''. The film, produced on a shoestring budget of 100,000 DM, explor ...

. The film is a dark comedy of manners that explores the life of a Berlin school teacher and the contrasts between his public and private lives. It was sexually explicit for general audiences of the day and for some time afterwards. As a result, the film was not passed uncut by the

British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...

until 2011, though it was widely shown in club cinemas. ''Taxi zum Klo'' was considered groundbreaking for its subject matter and achieved a cult status among audiences of the time. Shot on location with many characters appearing as themselves, the film documents gay culture in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

in the brief moment post gay liberation and before the onset of

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

, around 1980. Ripploh has stated that much of the film was autobiographical. The name literally means ''Taxi to the Toilet'' (or "Cab to the Cottage", etc.), that being a place for casual gay sex.

Cast

as Frank Ripploh * Bernd Broaderup as Bernd * Orpha Termin * Peter Fahrni as Gas station attendant * Hans-Gerd Mehrtens as the Leather Boy * Dieter Godde * Klaus Schnee * Bernd Kroger * Markus Voigtlander * Irmgard Lademacher * Gregor Becker * Marguerite Dupont * Eberhard Freudenthal * Beate Springer * Millie Büttner * Gitta Lederer * Toller Cranston in a cameo role as himself

Critical reception

''The Village Voice'' hailed it as "the first masterpiece about the mainstream of male gay life".''Private Affairs: Critical Ventures in the Culture of Social Relations'' by Phillip Brian Harper, paperback edition, page 70 ''Taxi zum Klo'' tied with '' Beau-père'' in winning the 1981

Boston Society of Film Critics Award The Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC) is an organization of film reviewers from Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. History The BSFC was formed in 1981 to make “Boston’s unique critical perspective heard on a national and internati ...

for best foreign language film.Past Award Winners
," ''Boston Society of Film Critics'', URL accessed March 1, 2013.

References

External links

* * 1981 films Documentary films about Berlin West German films 1980s German-language films 1981 LGBT-related films 1980s German films German LGBT-related documentary films {{LGBT-documentary-film-stub