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.

"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.

This drama follows the last few days in the life of Elvira (formerly Erwin) Weisshaupt. Years before, Erwin told a co-worker, Anton, that he loved him. "Too bad, you aren't a woman," he replied. Erwin took Anton at his word. Trying to salvage something from the wreckage love has made of his life, he now hopes that Anton will not reject him again.

At this point (2017),I have seen most of what Fassbinder has made. And, indeed, the vast majority is really good. Some have said this is his best work. While I am not sure I am ready to jump on that train, I am also not willing to deny the possibility. Even the content alone deserves praise. This is 1978. I am no expert on transgender history, but I cannot think of any films that tackled such a heavy subject this far back.

If anything, the film seems even more topical today as transgender issues are more front and center. The mainstream is ready to stand up for the rights of these folks, and films like "13 Moons" should really be re-examined by the film community.