Frank Ripploh (2 September 1949 – 24 June 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, explored the day-to-day life of a

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

schoolteacher who also led a very active

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

sex life. Extremely explicit for its day, and for some time afterward (to the point where the film was not passed uncut by the

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

until 2011), ''Taxi zum Klo'' was considered groundbreaking for the subject matter it portrayed, and achieved something of a cult status among gay audiences of the time. In 1987, Ripploh directed a sequel entitled '' Taxi nach Kairo'', but the film was not considered as successful as its predecessor, and it was not released outside Germany. Ripploh also participated in the creation of a small number of other art house films during the 1980s, and had a role in the 1982 movie ''

Querelle ''Querelle'' is a 1982 English-language erotic art film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The film stars Brad Davis and was adapted from French author Jean Genet's 1947 novel '' Querelle of Brest''. The plot centers on the Belgian sailor G ...

'' directed by

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Rainer Werner Fassbinder (; 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982), sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker, dramatist and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema moveme ...

. Ripploh died of cancer in 2002.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ripploh, Frank 1949 births 2002 deaths People from Rheine Film people from North Rhine-Westphalia German LGBTQ film directors German LGBTQ screenwriters German gay actors German gay writers German male screenwriters Gay screenwriters Male actors from North Rhine-Westphalia 20th-century German screenwriters 20th-century German LGBTQ people Deaths from cancer in Germany