In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden (1978)

Director:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writer:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder (writer)

Release Date:

11 June 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

This drama follows the last few days in the life of Elvira (formerly Erwin) Weisshaupt. Years before...

Plot Keywords:

Unrequited Love | Transvestism | Sex | Prostitute | Slaughterhouse

Cast

Volker Spengler	...	Erwin / Elvira Weishaupt
Ingrid Caven	...	Die rote Zora
Gottfried John	...	Anton Saitz
Elisabeth Trissenaar	...	Irene Weishaupt
Eva Mattes	...	Marie-Ann Weishaupt
Günther Kaufmann	...	J. Smolik, Chauffeur
Lilo Pempeit	...	Schwester Gudrun (as Lieselotte Pempeit)
Isolde Barth	...	Sybille
Karl Scheydt	...	Christoph Hacker
Walter Bockmayer	...	Seelenfrieda
Peter Kollek	...	Saeufer
Bob Dorsay	...	Selbstmörder
Gerhard Zwerenz	...	Burghard Hauser, Schriftsteller

Also Known As:

In a Year with 13 Moons (International: English title) (informal literal title) (USA)
In the Year of the 13 Moons (UK)

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:-16 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany

Company:

Filmverlag der Autoren

Trivia:

The tape-recorded narration heard throughout the film (particularly during the final scene) was not scripted. Volker Spengler (playing Elvira Weishaupt) and Rainer Werner Fassbinder recorded the narration together, with Fassbinder asking questions and Spengler responding in character. In the final cut of the film, Fassbinder's voice is edited out.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Die 120 Tage von Bottrop (1997)

Soundtrack:

A Song For Europe

Transcending one's personality

While "Depair. A Trip into the Light" (1977) shows the decrease of mind of Hermann Hermann, "In a Year of 13 Moons" illustrates the decrease of matter of Erwin/Elvira Weishaupt. Both persons try to change their identities: Hermann Hermann by taking over the identity of Felix Weber, Erwin Weishaupt by changing his sex and becoming Elvira. Both persons share their desire to transcend their personality by which action they trap themselves and get into a maelstrom of events out of which there is no other escape than insanity in the case of Hermann Hermann or death in the case of Erwin/Elvira. In both cases, despair may be seen as the causing motive of the process of self-destruction. "Despair is the only condition of life I can accept", director R.W. Fassbinder said in an interview. It seems as if each person is given a certain role, which he or she has to play and which displays this person's personality as perceived by society. Maybe everybody is surrounded by an infinite number of empty but already reserved personalities that will be taken by future persons. If somebody transcends his personality, he thus steals one that was already determined to someone else, an action by which the equilibrium of subjectivity in this world is disturbed and for which therefore a transcending person has to be punished. And the mechanisms of punishment work in the two forms of destruction or self-destruction, the latter possibility is enabled by guilt, a concept that transfers the position of the executor from the society to oneself. Moreover, once changed one's own personality, there is not return anymore. When Elvira cuts her hair and dresses again with men's clothes, he is not accepted anymore by his wife and his daughter as Erwin, although Elvira is still recognized as Erwin by Anton Saitz, for whom he once changed his sex. He/she is thus neither Erwin nor Elvira, thus both persons or somebody between both persons and therefore in any way taking the position of a third person, which again means transcendence and has to be punished by society which paradoxically turns out to be a strictly immanent concept of organization, while persons tend to be transcendental.