Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Taxi zum Klo" or "Taxi to the Toilet" is a West German 90-minute movie from 1980, so this one had its 35th anniversary last year. The writer and director and lead actor is Frank Ripploh and this is his career-defining film, his only really known work although he was pretty close to Rosa von Praunheim occasionally. This connection also tells you the direction this film is taking. It is a fairly early full feature film about the homosexual scene in Germany. The protagonist is a gay man and during these 1.5 hours we get to gain an insight into his life, his personal life and his professional life. In his personal life, he meets another man and they become a couple. Occasionally, they seem pretty happy, but there are also moments when there's major conflict, such as insecurity about where to move, insecurity whether to move at all, jealousy, faithfulness and their relationship in general. The main character played by Ripploh is a school teacher very much liked by his pupils, but his colleagues as well as parents are very critical because they seem to know or at least suspect that he is into men. And as they don't like him because he gets along well with the pupils and because he gives some pupils bad notes, they try to use his homosexuality against him. I really liked the last scene with the kids being allowed to do what they want as it felt a bit as if the main character was breaking free from his struggles, but there's also a negative side to it as he will certainly lose his job after that. And what was that outlet comment. He can't let them do that can he? Anyway, there were scenes I liked in here, but they were also scenes I did not like and the latter includes a rectal examination at the doctor for example which was very graphic. I don't mind such scenes if they add anything to the film, but honestly, this one did not at all. It was only in there to shock audiences and make this film even more controversial. Sometimes subtlety is the right path. As a whole, I would say that this was not too interesting of a film, even if I can see how progressive it was for 1980s. It's a shame it was weak in several areas as Ripploh clearly elevated the material with his acting. May he rest in peace. The bad outweighs the good and I give it a thumbs-down. No need really to make a sequel too.

Jason Shaw 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.

Zeech We checked this film again decades after most of us had seen it first time around. @ Ritzy in Brixton which was bad and independent back in the day. What hit us all, is a moment in the movie where our guy shows his involved in international politics, meeting about Chile etc. He like many gay men is involved in the socialist politics and yet.. and yet where is his moves for individual sexual politics? This really was true back in the day where gay men would be involved in the great left vs right debate but keep their sexual life was a don't ask don't tell and don't expect any gay civil rights involvement from me! This wasn't a myth as Peter Tatchell was an active socialist in the labour part but once his gay lifestyle hit the media, well even the his Party's Leader had to denounce him as a 'poofta'. Political Young folk should watch Taxi Zum Klo to realize how good they have it now.

ekeby 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.