Numerootno
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
Cody
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Gil Costello
There is what I consider one of the greatest films of all time by one of the great film artists of the 20th century, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who died at age 38, leaving behind 40 films. The film is In a Year With 13 Moons. I hesitate to even write about it, knowing that no matter how close I come to revealing a sense of the richness and complexity of this film, it will only detract from what Fassbinder actually accomplished. It is a confessional film, and although certainly not intended to be a critique of gay culture, in the end, by its beautifully brutal honesty, ended in being just that to so many prominent gay persons, certainly not all, but simultaneously revealing that gay culture is but a reflection or a microcosm of the larger, universal matrix of sado-masochistic imprisonment that no one escapes from other than as martyr-saint (I can embrace Saint=Fassbinder), a matrix that includes all landscapes that are relational, societal, religious, philosophical, anthropological, economic and political of every shape and hue. This film resides in eternity, so there is no end to it-it is epic. It requires multiple viewings, and then, after a pause lasting moments or years, beginning again. It cost a little over $300,000 to make, yet every frame is perfection in lighting, dialogue, mise-en-scene, camera work, editing and directing, and he did it all himself, except with some help in editing, a personal film of the highest order. He tells the painful truth in every second, never letting up, from the beginning alarming us to the fact that this film will be an emotional slaughterhouse with every curtain ripped away. Stay at your own risk, or cover your eyes and stuff up your ears, because this will be a bumpy road like no other. And its finale reveals the glory of the dignity of the human person that can reside in no place other than the truth. Few films capture this in such magnitude. I think of Antonioni's L' Aventura, Bergman's Winter Light, and Tarkovsky's Solaris, but no film I can think of is as personal as 13 Moons.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden" is a West German German-language film from 1978 written and directed by German auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder. This is a movie already from the last 5 years of his career and sadly also his life. At 120 minutes, it is one of his longer works and it is also in color like most other of his films. The lead actor here is Volker Spengler and he worked with Fassbinder on several films. This one here, however, is his great moment in the spotlight. The other roles he had were considerably smaller. Fassbinder is known for picking some of his regular cast members as lead characters to give them their well-deserved attention and like I said here it is for Spengler. Another example would be Zeplichal in "I Only Want You to Love Me". Fassbinder is also known for elaborating a lot on smaller characters and giving them screen-time, but here it is really almost everything about Spengler's Erwin/Elvira. And his performance is also what carries this pretty long movie and what makes it work. I can imagine that many other actors may have done a worse job and because of that I would have given a lower rating. Spengler, however, is really convincing. It is also good that Fassbinder kept the absurdities fairly low in terms of quantity this time, which he sometimes fails to do and it can destroy a serious movie like "The Third Generation". And as I said "serious movie", it needs to be noted that this film is 100% drama and tragedy about a severely struggling soul and how he pulls some of the people around him into his misery. There may be some situational comedy at times, but this is always true with Fassbinder and still nobody should see this as a funny film. As a whole, this is definitely among my more preferred Fassbinder films. There some films from him that I like even more, but not too many as I felt that this one here rarely dragged despite its massive runtime. And there is certainly a handful Fassbinder films that I found a lot less interesting. I recommend the watch here. "In a Year with 13 Moons" is a quality film that once again includes several of Fassbinder's regular actors, not only Spengler, but also Caven, Kaufmann and John only to mention a few. Go check it out. And one final note, this is a very personal film for Fassbinder as he made it to deal with the suicide of a beloved one. You can look for details yourself if you care about the background story.
cstotlar-1
As some others have written or implied this film is absolutely exhausting. It doesn't abandon its character or his life at any time although at times we almost WANT relief. Mahler's music in films has been dutifully noted. It can be almost as depressing in concert version. As for Nino Rota's "happy" music, or "life just continues (joyfully)" score, the irony isn't lost either. This is a one-man job and therefore takes risks that few producers or companies would tolerate under normal circumstances. I was profoundly moved by the film; I just don't plan to see it again for a while.Curtis Stotlar
MartinHafer
It's funny. I've seen a bunch of Fassbinder films and I have found some to be extremely creative and interesting, while others are repellent and self-indulgent messes--like this film. For me, it ranges from great to crap--without much in the middle. I know he has a lot of fans among the "sophisticated", but I can't help but think that a lot of his appeal is pure hype. From my point of view (and I know I will get a lot of negative ratings for this), he made too many movies too quickly and was too self-indulgent. His gay or gender-bending films (like this one) tend to be really bad--sloppily done, sometimes quite boring (such as QUERELLE and THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT) and sometimes just gross (like this film). Couldn't his message about acceptance of a person's gender-confusion be handled better than showing him get slapped around or watching cows being gruesomely slaughtered? Show some sensitivity for the subject matter and make your characters more human and sympathetic--then, maybe, I'd care about the films. I'm honestly at the point after watching this film that I might not bother with any more Fassbinder films--the bad seems to be out-weighing the good.
