In a Year with 13 Moons (In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden)

Every seventh year is a Year of the Moon.

People whose lives are strongly influenced by their emotions

suffer more intensely from depressions in these years.

To a lesser degree, this is also true of years with 13 new moons.

When a Moon Year also has 13 new moons

inescapable personal tragedies may occur.

In the 20th century, this dangerous constellation occurs six times.

One of these is 1978;

before that, 1908, 1929, 1943 and 1957.

1992 will also be a year in which many people's lives are threatened.

Volker Spengler as Elvira Weisshaupt in

IN A YEAR WITH 13 MOONS

What's up here?

He's not a john. He's a woman, he says.

Stop it!

With the collaboration of

Men hover 'round me

like moths 'round a flame

And when they get burnt

good that no one knows my game

Rumpelstiltskin is my name

On the Volga's banks a soldier stands

Keeping watch for his fatherland

Standing on the battlements, looking down with pleasure on...

Elvira?

I didn't know you'd be here.

It's been six weeks

Six weeks! That's 42 days...

Or 1008 hours. I can count for myself.

Is that all that occurs to you?

No, of course not.

How stupid of me!

I'm so sorry.

I bet you mean my...

my outfit.

You're probably wondering...

why I'm...

You're drunk again.

Drunk?

No, darling. I'm not drunk.

On the contrary...

I'm just lonely.

Yes, I'm lonely, and I...

Stop screaming!

When you're in the wrong you always start screaming.

Me, in the wrong?

You, of all people, accuse me?

No, my friend,

I am not in the wrong.

You left me in the lurch.

I've been sitting here for weeks, till I felt quite claustrophobic,

staring at the phone...

till I could hardly see anymore, till my brain went numb.

No, the only thing I did wrong

was to yearn

for someone to caress me

and kiss me.

Caress you? Kiss you?

You have nothing but jam in your head.

Caress you? Don't make me laugh!

Look at yourself in the mirror!

Don't, Christoph!

Look at yourself in the mirror!

Christoph, please, please.

I'm scared.

What are you scared of?

Of you. Today, you're so...

You know what you're afraid of?

Your own ugly mug.

Look at yourself in the mirror!

I'm afraid...

Open your eyes.

Christoph, please...

Look at yourself, Elvira.

Look, or I'll smash your teeth in.

Look at yourself.

Do you see now why I don't come home anymore?

I see myself loving you.

So that's why you drink and get fatter and fatter

till your face revolts me

like a contagious disease, like leprosy.

I never wanted to hurt you.

Ugh! You're not even funny. You're just repulsive.

You're a fat, revolting, superfluous lump of meat.

And you know why?

Because you have no will of your own

no initiative, no brain. You've no imagination.

- You're not interested in anything. - That's not true.

I've always searched for something like a soul.

Something like you doesn't have a soul.

You're just a thing, an object

completely superfluous.

Nobody would notice if you ceased to exist.

Splat! And gone!

Somebody should step on you and squash you like a bug.

Christoph, stop it! Help! You're hurting me.

Stop screaming! Do you want the whole building to hear?

This is my apartment, Christoph,

and I can do what I like in it.

- So it's your apartment, is it? - Yes, my apartment.

Mine, mine, mine!

Okay, have it your way, Elvira.

It had to happen sooner or later.

God knows

rather sooner than later.

What's the matter?

Say something.

Nothing. I'm packing.

Packing?

But you've only just come home.

If this is your apartment, I can't have come home.

I must be at the wrong address.

Sorry.

You know I didn't mean it like that.

You know how I really feel.

That's the thanks I get for trying so hard all these years.

I just couldn't get it into my head you're not a real woman...

You said you loved me

and you knew about it long before you said that.

No one could know what would happen to you

that you'd become such a mess

that you'd turn out to be more than just a man

big and blubbery like a walrus

that your brain would grow emptier and emptier

and shrink to a spongy mass of nothing.

Don't talk like that, Christoph.

Not like that.

I'm so afraid you'll ruin everything

Everything.

Oh no, Elvira.

Stop kidding yourself!

There's nothing left to ruin.

It's been going on a long time.

I feel like throwing up when I touch you.

I feel so nauseated

I'd rather spend the weekend in an empty hotel

than come home to you.

You don't mean what you say.

Beat it! Let me finish packing!

Leave me alone! Once and for all!

- Go brush your teeth, for all I care. - You've been lonely in life, too.

- Now you behave as if... - Well?

Did I ever deny it?

Did I?

No. On the contrary.

But I didn't let myself go.

Of course not. You never had to.

I was always there for you.

Do you want me to spend my life groveling on my knees before you?

No one asked you to do that.

No, but you behave as if I had to pay off some huge debt.

My God, you're so unfair.

I never said anything like that. I never even thought it.

You don't think. You've nothing but jam in your head.

- You said that before. - I know, because it's true.

Jam.

It sticks your eyelids together.

It's rancid and it stinks.

It smells of putrefaction when you're around

of decay and death.

That's why

you need alcohol.

What have I done to you that you have to hurt me like this?

What have I done?

Is it because I was the one who helped you

recover your self-respect?

Think what you like.

Do what you like. I couldn't care less.

I'm leaving. Understand?

And this time for good.

Out of my way. I couldn't care less what becomes of you.

Christoph!

Leave me in peace!

Christoph, do what you like, anything.

But don't leave me!

Wait, Christoph!

Let's talk it over! Just one more time!

- See you Friday? - Okay.

What do you want?

Please don't go.

Out of my way, or I'll run you down!

Beat it!

Two coffees, two brandies, please.

What was that all about?

Because I put on men's clothes and went down to the river.

To the River Main, and?

I wanted to buy myself a boy. Is that so terrible?

It's not terrible at all, but...

Why did you wear men's clothes?

I'm not so ashamed to pay for it with men's clothes on

as I am when I wear women's clothes, as I have sometimes.

Maybe it's stupid. It's just a feeling I have.

When I pay for it as a woman I feel so terribly ashamed.

- You understand? - Sure, I understand.

It wasn't the first time I've done it in men's clothes,

but last night they beat me up.

Still, it's better than those stupid grins.

Last week I tried to get a job in my old trade.

- In men's clothes? - Naturally.

- What is your trade? - I used to be a slaughterer.