The most painful movie ever made. Fassbinder the expert on human suffering. Elevated melodrama. In a Year of 13 Moons (1978, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) is a quiet film. Because loneliness is quiet. And finally so is death.
The film is Fassbinder in conversation with the audience. Asking why are you here? ELVIRA WEISHAUPT (Volker Spengler) loses everything. But not in the typical melodramatic sense. More in a contemplative figurative onscreen martyrdom patron saint of suffering kind of way. As a result of gender reassignment he can no longer return to his trade. Working the killing floor.
When we see the graphic footage of the cows in the slaughterhouse going on for as long as it does this is Fassbinder confronting us with questions we are to ask ourselves: Do you realize you like watching this? Even though it’s disturbing? And most people either wouldn’t or wouldn’t admit to it? Because Elvira mentions how it doesn’t bother him. (Although it does bother ANTON SAITZ. Especially the smell of the animals right before they die. The next day he never ate meat again.) But Elvira (and us) like the smell. Or we wouldn’t be here. Elvira even goes with his argument that’s in favor of animals being happy to die so they can be eaten by man. Pro meat ethos. You get the sense Fassbinder has got to be taunting us just a little.
Although it’s never clearly referred to as a sex change Elvira’s Casablanca trip is said to have involved him “having everything cut off down there.” As in castrating a bull. And as a result of that park hooligan unwittingly feeling what’s going on down there later in the arcade threatens him: “Keep staring at me and I’ll carve you to pieces you stupid cow.” So the analogies are overt. You keep watching be warned you’re in the slaughterhouse.
Yet this film isn’t for the depraved bunch. It’s for the people drawn to those who have no one else. It even mocks the content of commercial cinema. The violence as entertainment business. When Elvira goes to Anton’s highrise that scene where he looks down from above and sees a shootout occur it’s made meager by for one the omniscient they look like ants angle. And secondly after the machineguns have ceasedfire the corpses get up. Reanimated to articulate the phoniness of it all.
The atmosphere vibe of In a Year of 13 Moons is engrossingly realized. CHRISTOPHE (Karl Scheydt) and Elvira’s cluttered hoarder house with its erupting bookcases gains this combination of squalor and lived in verisimilitude that draws us in. The mundane wasting our lives away dread the video arcade and endless channel surfing later by RED ZORA (Ingrid Caven) lullaby sadness blanket us into oblivion.
Elvira’s dying final cries for help along with his elegiac final interview for the porno rag is a new low in the tortured soul miserable existence canon. And there are real stakes. Skin in the game. Because of Christophe. That’s what hurts. Elvira found love. He and Christophe were happy together. That’s more than a lot can say. Begging Christophe not to leave despite his cruel words. Jumping on the car. And when Elvira was Elvin he had a true friend in IRENE and they had a beautiful loving daughter in MARIE-ANN. A life fully lived.
But I don’t know man. In a Year with 13 Moons is so much dialogue it’s often weighed down. I’m not even gonna try to make any excuses for that. Each of its scenes just go on and on with a character talking.
And the ending doesn’t work for me. Why does Anton Saitz go over to Elvira’s place? Or more importantly why does he give him cash and ask if this covers the cake? And how can Red Zora seriously hook up with him in her best friend’s house? With him there? After knowing what he means to him? And the Günther Kaufmann bodyguard checking everyone even the nun for weapons is too silly.
Anyways yes I love this movie. When Elvira cuts off all his hair and dresses in a suit and tie and goes to Irene and Marie-Ann and expresses how he wishes he could go back but it’s too late says it all. Confusion. Regret. Making a mess of one’s life is the slaughter we had coming this whole time.
When we see the graphic footage of the cows in the slaughterhouse going on for as long as it does this is Fassbinder confronting us with questions we are to ask ourselves: Do you realize you like watching this? Even though it’s disturbing? And most people either wouldn’t or wouldn’t admit to it? Because Elvira mentions how it doesn’t bother him. (Although it does bother ANTON SAITZ. Especially the smell of the animals right before they die. The next day he never ate meat again.) But Elvira (and us) like the smell. Or we wouldn’t be here. Elvira even goes with his argument that’s in favor of animals being happy to die so they can be eaten by man. Pro meat ethos. You get the sense Fassbinder has got to be taunting us just a little.
Although it’s never clearly referred to as a sex change Elvira’s Casablanca trip is said to have involved him “having everything cut off down there.” As in castrating a bull. And as a result of that park hooligan unwittingly feeling what’s going on down there later in the arcade threatens him: “Keep staring at me and I’ll carve you to pieces you stupid cow.” So the analogies are overt. You keep watching be warned you’re in the slaughterhouse.
Yet this film isn’t for the depraved bunch. It’s for the people drawn to those who have no one else. It even mocks the content of commercial cinema. The violence as entertainment business. When Elvira goes to Anton’s highrise that scene where he looks down from above and sees a shootout occur it’s made meager by for one the omniscient they look like ants angle. And secondly after the machineguns have ceasedfire the corpses get up. Reanimated to articulate the phoniness of it all.
The atmosphere vibe of In a Year of 13 Moons is engrossingly realized. CHRISTOPHE (Karl Scheydt) and Elvira’s cluttered hoarder house with its erupting bookcases gains this combination of squalor and lived in verisimilitude that draws us in. The mundane wasting our lives away dread the video arcade and endless channel surfing later by RED ZORA (Ingrid Caven) lullaby sadness blanket us into oblivion.
Elvira’s dying final cries for help along with his elegiac final interview for the porno rag is a new low in the tortured soul miserable existence canon. And there are real stakes. Skin in the game. Because of Christophe. That’s what hurts. Elvira found love. He and Christophe were happy together. That’s more than a lot can say. Begging Christophe not to leave despite his cruel words. Jumping on the car. And when Elvira was Elvin he had a true friend in IRENE and they had a beautiful loving daughter in MARIE-ANN. A life fully lived.
But I don’t know man. In a Year with 13 Moons is so much dialogue it’s often weighed down. I’m not even gonna try to make any excuses for that. Each of its scenes just go on and on with a character talking.
And the ending doesn’t work for me. Why does Anton Saitz go over to Elvira’s place? Or more importantly why does he give him cash and ask if this covers the cake? And how can Red Zora seriously hook up with him in her best friend’s house? With him there? After knowing what he means to him? And the Günther Kaufmann bodyguard checking everyone even the nun for weapons is too silly.
Anyways yes I love this movie. When Elvira cuts off all his hair and dresses in a suit and tie and goes to Irene and Marie-Ann and expresses how he wishes he could go back but it’s too late says it all. Confusion. Regret. Making a mess of one’s life is the slaughter we had coming this whole time.
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