In a Year of 13 Moons

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In a Year of 13 Moons

Released Nov 17, 1978

2h 4m

Drama

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76%

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17 Reviews

79%

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

Elvira Weishaupt (Volker Spengler), once a burly working-class butcher named Erwin, has made an enormous sacrifice for love. She has undergone a sex change for a romantic interest who has abandoned her, and she now must struggle to reconcile her past life with her present identity. The emotionally fractured Elvira visits influential acquaintances and old haunts in hopes of putting the pieces of her life back together -- and of confronting her lost love.

Jay Scott

Globe and Mail

The movie is a relentlessly uncompromiaing, keening cri de coeur, a movie that has turned a wake into a work of art.

Dec 6, 2022

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Bruce McCabe

Boston Globe

"Moons," in fact, is suspiciously easy to kiss off. It can be tedious and silly. Yet Fassbinder is too brilliant to be dismissed.

Apr 27, 2018

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

In Fassbinder's portrait of the gleamingly rebuilt Frankfurt as an emotionally devastated wasteland, Fascism-the need of some to dominate and of others to endure-comes off as a woeful constant of the heart.

May 23, 2016

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Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…demonstrates RWF's ability to expose the inner life of these characters, not seeking their company for any outwardly attractive quality, but for an outsider status that suffuses his outlook, of which this is a typically potent and memorable example….

Rated: 4/5

Mar 18, 2025

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Justine Smith

Vague Visages

Spengler's performance stresses the exhaustive weight of expectations that Elvira feels. He injects the air of a person on the brink of collapse who does everything they can to hide their impending crash.

Jun 6, 2024

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Michael Bronski

Gay Community News (Boston)

It is, on the whole, a satisfying film — although not as immediately enjoyable.

Sep 7, 2022

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Petros T

It's a chore to sit through due to the unbelievably bloated, relentlessly expository and above all endless monologues, stilted acting, boring cinematography and almost total absence of a plot or dynamics. To add insult to injury, somewhere between the nonsense introduction and the incessant and artificial pseudo-philosophical ramblings that are disguised as dialogues, it tries hard to appear as an intellectual musing on life but comes off as self-indulgent, smart-ass and unbearably dull instead.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/04/24

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Audience Member

Fassbinder was known for his films dealing with emptional issues, people in despair and they are never loaded with happiness. In fact, I have not seen a scene from the guy with a pure glimse of joy. Here we meet Erwin, or Elvira as he likes to be called. He is transgendered and walks aroound in dresses and womens clothing. Back in 1978 this is not a trick to earn many friends outside the community of his but most people seem to accept him. The problem is that he does not accept himself. Thinking about the past and the life he never obtain is something that wrecks him and this shows a summer of his life where he pretty much are fed up with it all. Amazing acting by Volker Spengler as the lead in this daring and emotional film. It's rather long and at times it's also pretty boring. It's not repitative or dragged but it sticks with the same theme here and there's little development. When it takes little paths away from the main plot, it's rearly uplifting, like the guy hanging himself. I like the expermientation with added sounds and all and this is already a pretty left field film so that adds up. The slaughter house scene are a stand out, but it has little to do with the actual story. Still, that will be my clearest memory of this film. My third film from RWF I belive, and I place it in the middle scale from his works. 6.5 out of 10 tennis balls.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Director

Volker Spengler

Erwin

Ingrid Caven

Die rote Zora

Gottfried John

Anton Saitz

Elisabeth Trissenaar

Irene Weishaupt

Eva Mattes

Marie-Ann Weishaupt

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Synopsis

Elvira Weishaupt (Volker Spengler), once a burly working-class butcher named Erwin, has made an enormous sacrifice for love. She has undergone a sex change for a romantic interest who has abandoned her, and she now must struggle to reconcile her past life with her present identity. The emotionally fractured Elvira visits influential acquaintances and old haunts in hopes of putting the pieces of her life back together -- and of confronting her lost love.

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Producer: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Screenwriter: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Distributor: Cinemagi
Production Co: Tango Film, Pro-ject Filmproduktion [de], Filmverlag der Autoren
Genre: Drama
Original Language: German
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 17, 1978, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 20, 2020
Runtime: 2h 4m

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