RUN LOLA RUN

Germany, 1998, 81 minutes, Colour.
Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup.
Directed by Tom Tykwer.

Run Lola Run has become something of a cult film. It had immediate praising reviews and was nominated for many awards. The film was original in its presentation of existential questions (including the audience being alerted to these in the voice over), a what-if circumstance and three possible interpretations of events.

The film is also very well paced, each shot is very short, the editing gives the film a sense of urgency, especially as Lola has 20 minutes to run to her boyfriend and bring him money to pay back what he has lost.

Franka Potente was introduced as Lola and went on to an international career (including such films as, Blow and The Bourne Identity as well as the Australian, Romulus, My Father). Mortitz Bleibtreu is a strong figure in German film making but also had international exposure in such films as, The Walker.

Tom Tykwer went on to make, The Princess and the Warrior, and the film, Heaven, with Cate Blanchet, based on a screenplay by Kzrystof Kieslowski..

1. Run Lola Run has a brief running time but is quite striking in its images, its zest, its questions. On the impact of the film? Immediate favourable reviews? Its growing status? A cult film?

2. The work of the director, his career, his actors and the boost this film gave their careers?

3. The title, Lola literarily running, running three times, the physical running, the psychological running?

4. The structure, the introduction, the voice-over and the existential questions, Manny and his losing the money, the need to get the large amount of money, the phone call to Lola? The three possible scenarios, alternates, what if … ? Lola, her running, her love for Manny, the various passers-by, the interludes of Lola and Manny and their love for each other during the three interpretations? The animation sketches of Lola running?

5. Editing, pace, score?

6. The basic plot, Manny, the money he owed, losing the money, the homeless man, the phone call, his desperation, Lola, her response, running out of the house, through the streets, her father, his women, the security guard, the driver coming out of his house, the woman passer-by, the cyclist, the ambulance driver? The thief? The variations?

7. Lola and her age, relationship with Manny, the issue of the money, her response, her desperation, her urgency, her route, the encounters, her father, his anger in the first story, his saying she was not his child, not wanting to leave, his girlfriend and the family? The issue of the money, his work at the bank? The variety of accidents? The third story and her gambling of the money? The third story and her being late, the police and her death? The second story and Manny’s death? The third story, her gambling, Manny recovering the money from the homeless man, it not being needed? Sad endings, happy endings?

8. Manny, his situation, desperation, the plan to rob the supermarket, the story in which he did do the robbery, the story in which he died, the story in which he chased the homeless man?

9. The character of the father, the woman and the discussion about the baby, his anger, his disowning Lola, not wanting her to go home? The story with his anxiety, with the gun, her stealing the money? The story where he went to his client, the car, the crash?

10. The various crashes, deaths, the ambulance?

11. The alternate lives in the photo collages, of a woman passer-by, of the cyclist, his wanting to sell the bike to Lola? The woman and her winning the lottery, the woman and the sadomasochistic sequences?

How well did the film work as a drama, as a parable about life and its meanings, the what-if …? A tour de force of film making?