The film stars Volker Spengler as Elvira, a transvestite martyr who was once a working-class butcher by the name of Erwin who then changed sexes because of an offhand comment made by the man s/he loved. Elvira then drifts around Frankfurt trying to make sense of the past and present. At one point she is framed by not just one doorframe but rather many doorframes within doorframes. It's as if Fassbinder's normal elocution and style were being highlighted and underlined by the director himself with an emphasis on his normal exclamations going the way of an anguished pianist pounding on the keys and letting the notes sit in the air in a way that would make most reasonable audiences just a tad nervous. Of course, Fassbinder is rather famous for the glee with which he attacks the bourgeois as he champions demoralized souls, in part, by embracing a flat and cheap aesthetic that represents the downtrodden's corner in both content and style. Be that as it may, within Fassbinder's prodigious output of over forty projects in just over 15 years one can find many polished and accessible efforts amidst those that are more avant-garde and challenging (some would say even "hostile"), but In a Year with 13 Moons certainly leans toward the latter.
Since most of Fassbinder's films are deeply personal, it helps to put things in context. Fassbinder had many tumultuous relationships (not to mention two marriages) but when he dumped his longtime lover Armin Meier in 1978, Meier killed himself and left Fassbinder battling a deep depression. Meier was already a big influence on Fassbinder's Fox and his Friends, 1975, and he had also acted in other Fassbinder titles. Before that, Meier had a background as a working-class butcher - which is why In a Year of 13 Moons, early on, has a graphic scene in a slaughter-house where several cows get eviscerated and chopped into smaller bits.
In a Year of 13 Moons is considered by many Fassbinder fans (ie: Richard Linklater, who provides an accompanying interview and introduction to the film) to be a re-invention of the melodrama and Fassbinder is said to have been inspired by the films of Douglas Sirk. However, it is not an easy film to watch, and its post-modern sensibilities hark back to the stylistic experiments of such as Jean-Luc Godard, who also had an obvious influence on Fassbinder's work. What speaks volumes for In a Year of 13 Moons is how it is also considered to be among Fassbinder's saddest, most honest, personal, and emotional works as he examines that "doomed quest" for - what else? Love.
The Fantoma dvd release of In a Year of 13 Moons features a new digital widescreen transfer (1.78:1), a video introduction by filmmaker Richard Linklater, both an audio commentary by, and video interview with, editor Juliane Lorenz, a conversation with Werner Schroeter, and liner notes by Robert Kolker, author of The Altering Eye.
For more information about In a Year of 13 Moons, visit Fantoma Films. To order In a Year of 13 Moons, go to TCM Shopping.
by Pablo Kjolseth
