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In a Year of 13 Moons

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76% Tomatometer 17 Reviews 80% Popcornmeter 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.

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In a Year of 13 Moons

Critics Reviews

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Jay Scott Globe and Mail 12/06/2022
The movie is a relentlessly uncompromiaing, keening cri de coeur, a movie that has turned a wake into a work of art. Go to Full Review Bruce McCabe Boston Globe 04/27/2018
"Moons," in fact, is suspiciously easy to kiss off. It can be tedious and silly. Yet Fassbinder is too brilliant to be dismissed. Go to Full Review Richard Brody The New Yorker 05/23/2016
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. Go to Full Review Eddie Harrison film-authority.com 03/18/2025
4/5
…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…. Go to Full Review Justine Smith Vague Visages 06/06/2024
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. Go to Full Review Michael Bronski Gay Community News (Boston) 09/07/2022
It is, on the whole, a satisfying film — although not as immediately enjoyable. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Petros T @PetrosTserpelis 02/04/2024 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. See more 08/17/2020 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. See more Read all reviews
In a Year of 13 Moons

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Cast & Crew

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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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In a Year of 13 Moons

In a Year of 13 Moons (1978) In a Year of 13 Moons (1978) View more photos

Movie Info

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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