Directed by Frank Ripploh
Frank, a dedicated schoolteacher, embraces the sexual freedoms of the city’s underground scene—navigating a double life in public restrooms, cinemas, and cruising spots. When he meets Bernd, a sweet and steady museum worker, he finds himself torn between the comfort of domestic partnership and the allure of anonymous desire.
Taxi Para O Banheiro, Taxa Til Lokum, Τάξη για τα αποχωρητήρια, Taksówka Do Klozetu, Такси до туалета, Taxi Til Toalettet, Taxi To The Toilets, Ai Cessi In Tassì, Ai cessi in tassì, Taxi al W.C., ტაქსი მიგიყვანთ ტუალეტში
Germany16 Hofer Filmtage Germany16 Max Ophüls Festival 
USA New York Film Festival USA New England Gay and Lesbian Film Festival 
Denmark Germany16 Denmark 
France16 
FinlandK-18 Germany16 
UK18 
Netherlands16 Denmark Finland France Germany Netherlands UK USA 
Ah, the evergreen gay storyline: two men get into a relationship, but one can't deal with the other's cruisey compulsions.
I've seen this story dozens of times, but what stands out here is the way that Ripploh uses Myra Breckinridge-esque stag inserts to seemingly present these urban gay mainstays -- gloryholes, leather, stand-up sex -- as learned behaviors. I don't know much about German gay culture, but there's probably some truth to that idea -- that sex films, if just by being the only medium that allowed gay men to see themselves and their sexuality on the screen, shaped the progression of gay culture in the lead-up to the simultaneous outbreaks of AIDS and home video. Is he saying that's a bad thing, though?
I don't think I've ever seen a piss scene that long in any other 'arthouse' movie.
I met Taxi to the Toilet on a torrent site where sometimes upload some retro films from other countries and of course, I let myself be carried away as well as feel identified in a personal way with it for three reasons: it is set in the school environment, it is Queer Cinema themed and that by its synopsis was noted very risky. To me, these aspects earned my attention to see it.
Frank is a homosexual elementary school teacher who teaches in a school in West Berlin and leads a double life. On the one hand, he keeps the obligatory social encounters with his work environment, and on the other hand, he seeks sporadic sexual relations in the toilets…
English Version below🟠🟢🔵
Fingerhakeln unter Gleichgesinnten Runde vier, Film Nummer #13: Taxi zum Klo (dt/int. Taxi zum Klo)
Hallo zusammen, ich bin Elfriede Buchner, dreiundvierzig Jahre alt, Mutter eines zwölfjährigen Sohnes, Ehefrau von Hans Buchner und arbeite als Reinigungsfachkraft, oder wie im Volksmund gesprochen: als Putzfrau in einer großen Reinigungsfirma mit dem Schwerpunkt Gebäudereinigung und Festivalreinigung.
Meine Arbeitsbekleidung besteht aus dem Kittel LE-04-2442 Damenkasack ohne Arme mit Teilungsnähten in der Damengröße 38 und in Hellblau und bezahle pro Stück 24,95€, den ich meistens über eine ausgewaschene Jeanshose anziehe. Mein von der Firma zur Verfügung gestelltes Arbeitswerkzeug besteht aus dem RMV Doppelfahrwagen Kunststoff ECO in der Farbe grau mit einem Fassungsvermögen von 2x18 Liter in den Maßen 70l x 42b x…
Taxi zum Klo feels like John Waters making a black comedy about the horniest gay man in Germany. This is sleazy, outrageous, and groundbreaking both for then and now, and is such an underrated cult classic in queer cinema history.
Based on director Frank Ripploh's own life story, this raunchy comedy features the central figure of a German school teacher who simply couldn't stop cruising for sex. A young handsome Ripploh was comfortable enough in his own skin to shock the audience, going all frontal, showing his anus, and sucking a cock or two without a hint of fear. Despite a lack of filmmaking experience, Ripploh compensated with an authentic queer story and a genuine understanding of queer issues of its time. Even though the experience is voyeuristic for the most part, it pulls back with sincerity in the end to remind us that even the messiest gays can be human too. Recommended.
With its presentation of an unpleasant, boundary-pushing anti-hero, this film made me think of many others I love, from Vernon Zimmerman's Unholy Rollers to Verhoeven's Elle. Films that center the darkly comic exploits of a rage-filled character who stretches your sympathy to its limits. Frank Ripploh's toilet epic got me thinking about why I enjoy and relate to such characters so intensely.
It's wild to look back and read of Ripploh proclaiming that his film is 'not political'. Sat in the general environment of New German Cinema, or even next to what Fassbinder and Praunheim were doing at the time, this is hard to swallow. It may have all been deeply personal and semi-autobiographical to Frank but it seems impossible…
one guy likes to fuck, one guy likes to cook... can they ever work out their differences???
Ass eating in a bathtub? This movie is for me.
I too need to cuddle a lamb after watching that prostate exam.
35mm. Metrograph.
One of my favorite / probably most important movies of my life. Saw it back in film school and had been waiting for a rep screening out here in Los Angeles for so, so long. It feels crass to put its context like this, but there's always that age old question of "how come no one has ever made a porn film that has a really good story?" And there answer is "oh, someone did, it's just a gay german film from 1980." But it's so much more than whatever playfully graphic scene it entails. It's soulful, beautiful, and so, so, damn funny. Really, it's almost a comedy first and foremost and Ira Sachs, the screening's host described it so…
when you are an extrovert and the love of your life simply doesn't understand...
Groundbreaking, autobiographical, raw, explicit, low-budget, indie film about the life of a gay schoolteacher in late seventies/early eighties West Berlin. Frank spends his days teaching his young students and his nights cruising the toilets and gay haunts of the city looking for casual sex. Even when he meets the sensitive and loving Bernd and they start a live-in relationship, he still can't give up the excitement of looking for anonymous sex with strangers.
I remember there was a huge fuss about this film when it came out - it was banned in the UK, or at least heavily censored. I can now see why with an abundance of unsimulated sex and nudity. But it's a very honest film, with the director and star, Frank Ripploh, being completely open about his lifestyle in a time where the gay liberation movement was allowing a bit more freedom, and before the onset of AIDS.
Sex as exhaustive compendium.
Babylon Berlin in the pre-AIDS kitsch era, replacing Thomas Mann's unrequited desires for Fassbinder and stag flicks randomly inserted here like... actual inserts, the Klo is a public gloryhole for casual sex, the meta-element present from the stag inserts comically inserted like DJ samples while the main character's hypersexed picaresque anti-journey into heartbreak oblivion intercuts those moments to highlight their romantic artificiality, this is not a closeted affair, but if it were, it would be for its love of Robert Aldrich and his campy films' histrionic meltdowns.
A teacher (Ripploh, the director) by day with the noise from dozens of kids raising their hands and answering questions for logical quandaries, a cruiser by night casually going…
