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18 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Brilliant, naturally, but very difficult to watch. (spoiler in first paragraph), 1 September 2000

Author: Alice Liddel (-darragh@excite.com) from dublin, ireland

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Part melodrama, part infernal parody of 'Candide', 'In a Year of 13 Moons' is one of Fassbinder's most moving films, without once relinquishing his icy formal control or savage cynicism. It achieves a remarkable effect whereby its protagonist's world seems to open up as the film continues - he begins alone, meets people, traverses a lot of places - but actually closes in, imprisons him, simply reinforcing the labyrinthine world of his own private hell, where the only escape is death.

When we first meet Elvira, the film's transexual heroine, she is dressed in men's clothing, trying to pick up boys in a dusky park. When her female appurtenances are discovered, she is beaten up by a group of thugs, left limping on a railway track, offering a promise of escape she cannot take up. Fassbinder's alienating method here is typical of the film as a whole. It is very difficult to make out what is going on, the scene is very murky. Fassbinder's editing and composition tend to fragment rather than establish

the action, leaving us with a montage of darkness and sinister figures, scored to Mahler in an ironic rejoinder to the passive gay fantasy of Visconti's 'Death in Venice'. To add to our confusion, Fassbinder's intertitles begin explaining the meaning of the title, making it difficult to follow both levels. Just as we've finally made out what's going on, and the film reaches what might be considered a dramatic or emotional crisis, forcing the viewer into the scene, Fassbinder hurls us back, framing it in long shot, and throwing screen-filling credits over it!

So, while I suggested the film was moving, it's with no help from the director. Elvira shares a narrative trajectory of decline similar to one of Fassbinder's most famous characters, Fox; indeed, here it is worse, she never begins with wealth and 'love', but is abused from the very start. The opening sequences reveal the extent of Fassbinder's despair. Elvira is beaten up by thugs, in the outside world. When she comes home, she is attacked by her so-called boyfriend, who abandons her, having savagely and interminably insulted her, mocking her alcoholism, her weight problems, suggesting her brain has shrunk - that it would be better for the world if she was crushed like an insect. Fassbinder's vision is not a reassuring one; there is no refuge from a brutal world, the violent poison infects home and outside alike.

So Elvira would seem to be a figure deserving of our sympathy. There is worse to follow, including being flung off her lover's speeding bonnet. In true melodrama fashion, her past is revealed onion-like, and her tragic quest to find the entrepeneur Anton Saitz, to apologise for insulting remarks made about him in an interview, inspires devastating revelations, as does a trip to the nunnery orphanage where she was brought up.

This mixture of emotional masochism and traumatic incident might suggest a film of overpowering pathos. But Fassbinder never uses the methods that would allow us get close to Elvira's plain, sympathetic music, or the close-up. Indeed, it is very difficult to make out the drama at all. Invoking his mentors, Sirk and Godard, Fassbinder does not foreground the drama; very often what is going on in the narrative is marginalised, squeezed into a tiny doorframe, so that what's privileged on screen is a door, or a wall, or the objects of a room; each scene is very lengthy, theatrical, like a self-contained episode, as, I suggested, in 'Candide', with lots of talk, stylised movements and positioning of character; at other times, you can barely make out characters in the dim lighting, who is actually speaking in a scene (this might be just my inability to differentiate German); even those scenes that seem to concern Elvira crucially, explanations of her past, for instance, have no room for her, characters talking about her as if she wasn't even there.

But, like Sirk, the film is shot through visually with Elvira's sensibility, her feelings of confinement, ironically, considering her apparent gender fluidity, a fluidity Fassbinder provocatively refuses to sentimentalise or celebrate. Elvira's vision is truly one of hell, where horrific scenes in a slaughterhouse offer a peaceful refuge to the human world; of confined, indoor spaces, of intrusive decor; or frightening emptiness; one scene, with the suicide, glows with a blazing red light, suggesting infernal fires. This is not a realistically rendered Berlin, but a living nightmare - there can barely be 20 people in this sparse dream landscape, even though Elvira seems to travel the whole city.

Naturally, such a bleak Fassbinder film is incongruously funny (the reunion scene is unbelievably flippant), but the humour turns back on the viewer, and we must ask ourselves, when we laugh, are we laughing at Elvira, sharing in her oppression. Is her lethargy, her paralysed will also sharing in her oppression? The film is full of lingering images of destruction (eg the primitive computer games).

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11 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Brutal, honest, excellent:, 29 August 2006

Author: Galina from Virginia, USA

The movie should have been called "Despair" had Fassbinder himself not made the film with that title just before "In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden" (1978) which was very personal for the writer/director who had to come to terms with his lover's suicide. This drama follows the last few days in the life of Elvira - Erwin Weisshaupt. Several years back, Ervin underwent the sex change operation in hopes to win love of the man he loved. It did not help him to make Anton love him and it did not make him happier. It may sound beautiful, "I'll do anything for love, I'll be anything you want me to be" but by trying to be someone else, a person simply loses his/her own identity, becomes lonely and desperate and has no way out.

The movie is the most touching, moving, powerful and devastating Fassbinder ever made - it is impossibly difficult to watch at times but it does not make it a bad movie. The acting is fantastic by everyone; the directing is tight and Fassbinder is always in control taking movie from its melodramatic roots to the heights of pure tragedy, never been over-sentimental and even providing some humor. The choice of music with the references to "Death in Venice" (eternal and never fulfilled longing) and to Fellini's "Amarcord" (looking back at one's life trying to find the roots in the childhood, to understand how and why the things happened the way they did) makes the film even more compelling.

Warning: there is a scene in the slaughterhouse which is almost unbearable to watch. It is the very important scene but be prepared for it. It does not spare any details of the job done and in its emotional impact is as horrifying as "The Blood of the Beasts" (1949), the short documentary by Georges Franju.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the Best, 5 March 2006
Author: spazyouth from United States

I found this movie difficult to watch the first time I saw it, and after the initial shock faded, I found myself drawn back into this tragic tale of a desperate human being. Elviras character has to be one of the most pitifully human in the history of cinema, and the recounting of her last few days alive are rife with powerful imagery ( especially the haunting slaughter-house scene...not for the weak of stomach! Vegans beware!) to convey an extraordinarily beautiful, heart-wrenching tale. The story is loosely based on one of Fassbinder's own lover who committed suicide, and perhaps it is that personal background that infuses the film with a palpable sense of reality... few films have felt more true to me than In a Year of 13 Moons.

Fassbinder's approach in this film is a little different than in say, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, there is less dialog, perhaps to convey the loneliness and hopelessness of Elvira in her final moments. The acting is superb, and the characters will stay with you long after you turn your TV off. I would recommend the Criterion edition for anyone interested in the film, its chock-cull of extra features, and a really cool introduction by Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Fassbinder's darkest and most punishing examination of personal exploitation, 24 June 2008
Author: Graham Greene from United Kingdom

Many, if not all of Fassbinder's films focus on weighty, emotional issues and characters plunged into personal despair, but none more so than the torturous and overpowering melodrama of In a Year of 13 Moons (1978). Here, Fassbinder created a film that is completely miserable in both tone and content from the first frame until the last; with the director taking the personal loss over the suicide of his lover Armin Meier and turning it into a suffocating chamber piece of pain and humiliation. Like his earlier masterpiece, Fox and his Friends (1975), the film focuses on the personal exploitation and persecution of a sensitive character at the hands of the people that he loves, as he finds himself cast against a cruel backdrop of the grimy and oppressive homosexual sub-culture of 1970's Frankfurt. However, unlike Fox and his Friends, the spirit of Meier's death and the guilt that we assume Fassbinder was suffering from at the time of the film's conception have here removed any prevailing notion of hope or the promise of escape that hung-over the character of Franz - the lottery winning carnival worker from the aforementioned "Fox", as he sought an end to his cruel suffering - and replaced it with a continually degrading emphasis on shame and deprivation.

Fassbinder establishes the pitiless tone of the film right from the start, with an opening vignette showing our central character, dowdy transsexual Elvira Weishaupt, dressed as a man and wandering through a park in the early hours of the morning looking for trade. After successfully managing to hook-up with a suitably butch male-prostitute, her secret is soon discovered and the 'john', alongside a couple of similarly macho friends, beat and mock Elvira, leaving her as a shivering, crying wreck, half-naked on an disused train-track. From here, Elvira limps home to her cramped apartment only to be plunged into a torturous, violent argument with her ex-boyfriend, which again, leaves her used and humiliated. The film continues in this episodic approach as we follow Elvira over the course of a few days and eventually find out more about her true character and personality and the events in her life that led to the eventual creation of the person that she is when we first discover her. These events are no less cruel and humiliating to the character of Elvira - who has clearly made a number of mistakes, either as a result of naiveté, arrogance or blind stupidity - as we discover the process that turned a handsome young man with a wife and infant daughter into an overweight, alcoholic wreck, abused and betrayed by the various men in her life, and the social pariahs that hang on the periphery.

As ever with Fassbinder, the presentation of the film underpins the feelings of the character and the world that she inhabits perfectly; with the cramped spaces of her apartment made even more prison-like and oppressive by the director's claustrophobic use of staging, design and composition. Fassbinder undertook the role of cinematographer himself here and shot the film on grainy 16mm, which again, adds to the stark and colourless feeling that the film conveys. The ugliness of the cinematography, with its dimly lit rooms, fragment composition and awkward camera movements could be seen as either amateurish on the part of the filmmaker, or as a deliberate attempt to distance the viewer from the characters and the emotional subtext in a manner that is reminiscent of Brecht; or, more appropriately, Godard's cinematic appropriation of Brecht and his theatre of alienation. As with the subsequent political satire, The Third Generation (1979) - once again, shot by Fassbinder himself - the unconventional approach to cinematography is combined with further elements that attempt to similarly disarm us and make the process of viewing the film as difficult as possible. The opening scene itself is emblematic of this approach, with Fassbinder obscuring the frame with large titles and an opening text that scrolls slowly over the entire frame before continuing with his use of obscured images and fragmented mise-en-scene.

Fassbinder also uses jarring cuts, with scenes seemingly beginning during the middle of a conversation or after the context of the scene has already been established, whilst sound and the disorientating way in which the director has characters talking over one another while music plays disconcertingly in the background all continue this idea of deconstruction and emotional distraction. The ugliness of the film fits perfectly with its tone; with the legendary scene in which Elvira and her friend wander ghost-like through an actual slaughterhouse, where cows are dispatched in graphic detail, whilst a monologue is recited to give us the entire back-story of this truly tragic figure. Whether or not Elvira is an extension of Fassbinder or the personification of Armin Meier is unknown, though there is certainly that element to the interpretation. I'd imagine that there is also some of the director in the portrayal of manipulative antagonist Anton Saitz, who recalls the depiction of Fassbinder in the director's own segment of Germany in Autumn (1978). Regardless, In a Year of 13 Moons is a fascinating if entirely difficult work from Fassbinder; one that brims with an uncomfortable feeling of personal confession and searing self examination that is grotesque, repellent and utterly draining, whilst also standing as a powerful and passionately realised piece of work that is both remarkable and affecting.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Fassbinder's best, 12 February 1999

Author: Igor-18 from Virginia USA

Fassbinder's genius is making you feel as trapped and desperate as Elvira, you really feel empathy for the character. Only the visit with her family is there a brief respite from her pain. Kudos for Fassbinder for his good taste in using Suicide's "Frankie Teardrop" on the soundtrack--a song about a man who feels trapped, but directs his anger outward, rather than inward, like Elvira.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
A depressing yet riveting work of art, 10 September 2008

Author: Kevin Schwoer from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

One could not watch Fassbinder's "In A Year With 13 Moons" and not feel something close to depression. He has captured the actual emotion itself in its raw and natural form, and transposed it onto the screen in the form of Erwin/Elvira. With the help of Volker Spengler's uncanny performance, Fassbinder has forever changed the way film will deal with disintegration of the human spirit.

The opening scene depicts the main character being beat up by men after trying to have sex. This horrible situation paints the perfect image of the main character who is the epitome of being a victim. The tragic character of Erwin, a meat worker, fell in love with one of his coworkers Anton. Upon revealing his feelings to Anton, Erwin is told it would be fine if he were a woman. This begins the fall of Erwin. He goes to Casablanca and gets a sex change in hopes of being with Anton.

Elvira, Erwin's new identity, is just as much of a slave to Anton's wishes as Erwin was. Though Anton was only the first, Elvira's life is full of uneasy relationships where, in the end, Elvira finds herself alone and depressed. She had changed her whole life for Anton and when he finally finds out, he could care less. One can not help but feel for Elvira and her struggle to live happily.

There is a scene of cows being slaughtered while there is a long monologue by Elvira. The cows hang there helplessly as the butchers slit their throats and the blood flows freely. The scene is very hard to watch yet, one could not help but relate the kinship of Elvira and the cows. Elvira seems powerless to stop others from controlling/ruining her life and much like the cows Elvira is helpless as the world bleeds her of her life. The cows are stripped of their skin and thus their identity which is precisely what Anton has driven Erwin to do.

The most telling scene in the film, however, is one where Elvira watches a man hang himself in Anton's building. The man is another victim of Anton's and he believes that suicide is not the forfeit of ones life because there is no will to live, but rather it is the will to live that causes one to reject this life to live free of its oppression. This man shows Elvira a reflection of herself in another which perhaps she never thought of before due to living her life for others.

Truly depressing, "In A Year With 13 Moons" is absolutely a work of art with hints of melodrama, comedy, and character study. The collaboration of great acting and directing has brought life to the tragic Elvira and will evoke feeling in even the most close minded of viewers.

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Falling in a hole., 28 November 2007

Author: dteil from Germany

I watched this movie and after my first reaction wasn't that clear. sometimes boring perhaps? but then i was thinking about it, more and more and it touched me more and more and in a strange way i compared this one with the all time classic x-mas movie IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE from Capra. in the mood way. Interesting to say, that also in 13 MOONS there is an angel like in the x-mas Movie. It's the character ROTE ZORA. While Capra's angel had success, it's will know, it will not happen in 13 Moons.

of course while you will learn by the Frank Capra movie how important each human being is in the world we live in, Fassbinder gives you here the lesson how hopeless life can be. So while you have tears in your eyes by watching IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, you see all the hope in this movie and you know there will be a happy end. From the first second on in this movie you know, there will be no happy end. And you will have no tears in your eyes at the end, but perhaps you will be a little bit speechless. From Hollywood a movie like this never will come. This movie don't want to entertain you in a Hollywood way. so be prepared!

This movie is the most personal Fasssbinder for sure. He lost some weeks before his boyfriend. then he wrote in three days the whole script. Unbelievable to tell that he ALSO was responsible for BOOK/EDITING/CAMERA (Michael Ballhaus was asked for, but he couldn't)/PRODUCING/IDEA/EQUIPMENT and of course DIRECTING it. The Music score is very good (classic meets suicide (the new wave band) meets sixties rock'n roll meets Connie Francis). A terrific Volker Spengler as the main character as also a stunning Ingrid Caven.

Almost impossible to understand the whole plot when you have to read the English subtitles, it's absolutely recommend when you can speak German.

Beginning with the written introduction about the 13 Moons, through the slaughterhouse scene (which is remarkable for the whole movie, because here he shows us the Life and the Death, the hopeless the movie is about in a short sequence), through the next scene where elvira is lying very depressed on the bed while the record player plays a x-mas song (it's a wonderful life......), but the song has a scratch (hopeless again) to the important scene where elvira tries to become erwin again (but failed), the two hours of this movie is very sensitive. It's not a movie to watch between Forrest Gump and Star Wars (...). It's a movie which brings you back to the ground of earth. So honest that you feel pain.

Everyone will have a time in life in which he falls in a hole. This movie is showing that. A tragedy. OR a horror trip.

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2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
One of Fassbinder's most daring and experimental works., 27 July 2005

Author: velvethighpeace from brighton

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"...Every 7th year is a Year of the Moon. Certain people, whose existence is predominantly determined by their feelings and emotions, are afflicted by unusually severe depressions in these Moon Years, comparable with those they suffer in years with 13 new moons, albeit less intense. And if a Moon Year coincides with a year of 13 new moons, they can often suffer major personal disasters. In the 20th century, there are six years when this dangerous conjunction occurs. After 1978, the year 1992 will again jeopardise the existence of many human beings...Frankfurt is a place whose particular structure virtually provokes biographies like this one -or at least doesn't make them seem particularly unusual. Frankfurt is a town where you run into all the general contradictions of society at every street-corner, incessantly. Or at least, if you don't stumble over THEM immediately, the contradictions that are being fairly successfully ironed out everywhere else" (RWF)

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1 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Transcending one's personality, 21 January 2008

Author: hasosch from United States

While "Depair. A Trip into the Light" (1977) shows the decrease of mind of Hermann Hermann, "In a Year of 13 Moons" illustrates the decrease of matter of Erwin/Elvira Weishaupt. Both persons try to change their identities: Hermann Hermann by taking over the identity of Felix Weber, Erwin Weishaupt by changing his sex and becoming Elvira. Both persons share their desire to transcend their personality by which action they trap themselves and get into a maelstrom of events out of which there is no other escape than insanity in the case of Hermann Hermann or death in the case of Erwin/Elvira. In both cases, despair may be seen as the causing motive of the process of self-destruction. "Despair is the only condition of life I can accept", director R.W. Fassbinder said in an interview. It seems as if each person is given a certain role, which he or she has to play and which displays this person's personality as perceived by society. Maybe everybody is surrounded by an infinite number of empty but already reserved personalities that will be taken by future persons. If somebody transcends his personality, he thus steals one that was already determined to someone else, an action by which the equilibrium of subjectivity in this world is disturbed and for which therefore a transcending person has to be punished. And the mechanisms of punishment work in the two forms of destruction or self-destruction, the latter possibility is enabled by guilt, a concept that transfers the position of the executor from the society to oneself. Moreover, once changed one's own personality, there is not return anymore. When Elvira cuts her hair and dresses again with men's clothes, he is not accepted anymore by his wife and his daughter as Erwin, although Elvira is still recognized as Erwin by Anton Saitz, for whom he once changed his sex. He/she is thus neither Erwin nor Elvira, thus both persons or somebody between both persons and therefore in any way taking the position of a third person, which again means transcendence and has to be punished by society which paradoxically turns out to be a strictly immanent concept of organization, while persons tend to be transcendental.

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0 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Nino Rota / 13 Moons, 23 February 2007
Author: Randal Chicoine (cineaste-4) from Seattle

I have to save my comments for later...I began watching this film last night and, as disturbing as the slaughterhouse scene actually is, I was only able to make it halfway through. I will return. It amazes me when a film disturbs me so much that I cannot watch it in one sitting. I had similar reactions to both Pasolini's "Salo" and to Cronenberg's "Crash".

But I'm curious to learn from anyone who might have a clue why Nino Rota's theme music from "Amarcord" (original orchestration) was put in this movie's first half and yet isn't credited on IMDb's list of "combined details".

Anybody who might offer some insight on this omission....thanks for posting it here....

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