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In a Year With 13 Moons
 
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In a Year With 13 Moons

Volker Spengler (Actor), Ingrid Caven (Actor), Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Director) | Rated: Unrated | Format: DVD
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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In 1974, Rainer Werner Fassbinder made Fox and His Friends, inspired by his relationship with working-class butcher Armin Meier. When Fassbinder dumped his longtime lover in 1978, the distraught Meier committed suicide, and Fassbinder fell into a deep depression. Whether driven by guilt or helplessness, the director drew from the experience for another film, the story of transsexual Elvira Weishaupt (Volker Spengler in a haunting performance). Elvira, formerly Erwin, is a working-class butcher who changed her sex for a lover who promptly left her. She now spends her days wandering the alienating industrial Frankfurt cityscape while reminiscing about her painful past. Coming after the lush, soft-focus beauty of the international hit The Marriage of Maria Braun, the bleak landscape of Frankfurt and Elvira's harsh, stylized flashbacks are almost shocking. The faint of heart should be warned of a gruesome slaughterhouse scene where cattle are killed and butchered--a display of cruelty that echoes the emotional brutality of Elvira's past. It's one of Fassbinder's most personal projects (in addition to writing and directing he serves as cinematographer, editor, and set designer), a strikingly stylized film and one of his most emotionally wrenching works. Meier may have inspired Elvira, but Fassbinder invests himself into the character, and his identification creates a powerful, painful portrait drenched in despair. --Sean Axmaker

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary late Fassbinder film, April 20 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: In a Year With 13 Moons (DVD)
Despite the flaws of '13 Moons,' I still believe that this is one of Fassbinder's best films. Part of that conclusion is of course the understanding that every Fassbinder film has flaws. But I judge films on how effective they were in telling a story and how effective they are in making me think. And this film still has a strong impression on me 10 years after seeing it last. For me, the film is best understood during the skyscraper sequence. We have an unknown character peeping through a keyhole in an abandoned office tower and laughing hysterically. That of course, is Fassbinder's little jab at the audience, as we are all voyeurs. Later, we see an executive playing a kind of "movieokie" / imitation of a Jerry Lewis sequence on television. A total carbon copy of a preexisting text, done in the twisted humorous style that only Fassbinder can deliver. We later see that same executive subject himself to a staged kidnapping drill by his security staff, which places the film in historical context as left-wing terrorists attacked CEO's during the 1970's. And finally, we see a man hang himself in an abandoned suite. It is over the top, unrealistic, and I'm sure it is torture for most viewers (if they weren't driven out by the early slaughterhouse scene), but it is still a masterpiece as it is a compelling example of post-modernism in the true sense. If you are a student of New Wave or Avant Garde cinema, 13 Moons is a must-see. I can't convince you that it is a masterpiece. You just have to see it for yourself. It ranks with "The American Soldier," "The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant," "Love is Colder than Death," "Chinese Roulette," and "Fox and his Friends," as Fassbinder's best works. If you want to see the darkest work of art to come of out West Germany in the late 1970's, this is it.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A BLOODY MASTERPIECE, April 19 2004
This review is from: In a Year With 13 Moons (DVD)
THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST STYLISH FILMS EVER MADE. NOTHING IN IT IS EXCESSIVE - THE DIRECTOR IS TRYING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING WITH EVEN THE MOST DISTURBING SLAUGHTERHOUSE SCENE.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Unpleasant and Unforgettable, Mar 13 2004
This review is from: In a Year With 13 Moons (DVD)
The other reviewers are correct to write that this is a difficult film to watch, as are all of Fassbinder's films. But that's why "In a Year with 13 Moons" is such a masterpiece: the director isn't trying to slip you a wink; he has made a brutal film to convey brutal ideas. And whether you agree with those ideas or not, Fassbinder's violence here is never insincere or gratuitous. (There are also a few well-timed moments of comic relief.) An astonishing combination of craftsmanship and raw emotion from a filmmaker at his very best. It makes other films look lazy or cowardly, or both.
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