Taxi Zum Klo

Rating:
Summary: "Taxi!!"
Review: Believe it or not this piece of German filmography translates as "Taxi to the toilet". It's basically a no holds barred account of the life of an "ordinary" gay man in a not so ordinary leather scene in 70's Deutschland.

Some of the scenes are a little shocking for the time and even now too, however the harder images are carefully filmed and work well with the general running of the movie.

To summarise: Actually quite a good, well acted, film but definitely for a mature audience.

(The DVD is in German language with removal English subtitles.)

Rating:
Summary: "Taxi!!"
Review: Believe it or not this piece of German filmography translates as "Taxi to the toilet". It's basically a no holds barred account of the life of an "ordinary" gay man in a not so ordinary leather scene in 70's Deutschland.

Some of the scenes are a little shocking for the time and even now too, however the harder images are carefully filmed and work well with the general running of the movie.

To summarise: Actually quite a good, well acted, film but definitely for a mature audience.

(The DVD is in German language with removal English subtitles.)

Rating:
Summary: Great Film, Terrible DVD
Review: Don't buy this DVD! Very poor copy (fuzzy, weak color) of film (transfered from a VHS tape?). The subtitles (NOT removable) hard to read. No chapter stops. No extras except some equally fuzzy previews for other Cinevista products. Very disappointing cheap issue at a high price. Hopefully some other company will issue a proper version some day.

Rating:
Summary: Gritty, fascinating, and why we watch foreign movies
Review: Frank Ripploh's largely autobiographical film takes two fairly schematic themes -- boy meets boy and all that that entails; and man deals with utter dislocation between job and private life -- and turns them into a fascinating look at a modern Germany that just as easily could be Taipei (think Ang Lee) or Rome (think Vittorio de Sica).

Frank is an elementary school teacher by day, and a sexual adventurer any time he is NOT at school. On one of his forays into the demimonde, he meets Bernd (played by the very appealing Bernd Broaderup) and falls in love. What follows is fairly typical of any love story, but it is in the details that Ripploh takes his audience into another world. Frank's love story is punctuated by sexual escapades that would have horrified Jane Austen. Added to this, Frank must come to terms with the increasing tension between his respectable job and his not so respectable but very exciting sex life. How Frank resolves this tension is simultaneously amusing and horrifying.

This film is not for prudes or the squeamish. The sex scenes are graphic and sometimes hard to watch. Also, it is obvious that the film was cheaply made, with gritty camera work and spotty sound quality. Still, the details draw the viewer in; you actually see how these people live (and where else do you see an old Karmann Ghia these days?). It is also eerie to see such lack of sexual restraint in a world on the brink of the HIV horror (Taxi zum Klo was released in 1981).

I was fascinated with this film in 1981 and I remain so in 2003. The only reason I gave this movie 3 stars instead of 4 is that the subtitles have an annoying tendency to disappear into the scenery. A passing familiarity with German would help fill in some of the gaps in legibility, but you will probably need several viewings to get all the plot points.

One comes away from this movie with feelings that only foreign films can provide. While Ripploh is no Kurosawa, de Sica, or Inagaki, he equals them in taking you to another world.

Rating:
Summary: hot & cold
Review: It's difficult to rate this film. It conveys well the spirit of gay life in the late '70s and early 80s. But it has some scenes that are disgusting to watch, and it isn't the sexual ones. Also it made me realize that good pornography that has been cosmetically enhanced and done with photographic artistry makes sexual matters much more appealing than the rough, raw stuff in this film. If I could, I would give it 2stars for its appeal to me, and 4stars for the intentions of the artist, Ripploh.

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly graphic film blending fiction and reality
Review: My motives for this review are selfish, since my life changed the day I saw this film (January 5th, 1984). Sitting in the theatre as an adolescent, enthralled by this film, I came out to myself and started the process of letting the rest of the world know who I am. I recently watched the film again, and realized that what is most amazing about this film is the blurring of the boundary between drama and documentary. We see Frank Ripploh enacting significant events in his life, even hooking up (and breaking it off again, this time for the camera) with his ex Bernd Broaderup for the sake of cinematic verissimilitude. It is sometimes harrowing, if not downright disturbing to watch, not because the sex scenes make most people (especially straight people) uncomfortable, but because the viewer feels like a voyeur. Everything about this film is "amateur," in the sense of being done for love instead of profit. We tend to disdain things "amateur" in our society, but a film about real people and the lives they lead cannot be "done" by professionals (Hollywood doesn't GET this). I think this is an amazing film, and none of the usual criteria for "reviewing" this film apply.

Rating:
Summary: worth seeing
Review: Perhaps too explicit for some viewers, this autobiographical semi-documentary tells the story of an oddly likable teacher who is both very caring to his students but restless in his personal life, unable to accept the monogamous, domestic life which his partner, also a likable guy, offers him. No simple answers here but remarkably honest story(alot like life).

Rating:
Summary: A Representative Film
Review: What "Taxi Zum Klo" represents is a kind of test-cast film for censorship. It is a personal work of a film maker and actor whose controversial life style is presented in a no-holds-barred manner. One may be put off by the candor and explicitness of its subject, but one cannot fault the creativity that went into its production. Further, what was once a film that was sought to be banned is now readily available for purchase and rental. As the years pass, it may become standard viewing fare. As a film work, the quality to me as slilghtly above average. Filmmaker Frank Ripploh somehow failed to present a full auoiographcal portriat which would give the viewer some understanding of the basis for main character's thinking and motivation. As it is, the "anti-hero" elicits little empathy, and emerges rather nasty and cold. One observes but has little feeling for him or his actions. The film also seems disjointed at times, with bits and snippets of extraneous action shots interspersed into the main narrative, without clear purpose. As an "experimental work" the film has greater validity.