Run Lola Run

Run Lola Run is a one-of-a-kind film that looks at a do-or-die scenario and plays it through three times to show a variety of outcomes. Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) is a bagman for some bad gangsters and he (mainly through his own stupidity) manages to lose a significant sum of mob money. He rings his girlfriend Lola (Franka Potente) and tells her she has twenty minutes to help him find 100 000 deustch marks, otherwise he's going to rob a supermarket to get the money himself. The scenario plays out three times, and each time a variation occurs quite early on that influences the way events will play out. It's an interesting way to look at themes of free will and determinism, but the biggest aspect of its appeal is the dynamic way it tells its story(s). So, as I know this is a Higher School Certificate text in Australia, rather than write a standard review I'm just going to look at the techniques this film uses... the 'distinctively visual' ways in which it presents a story.

Section 1

• Black and white cinematography is used to denote a flashback, in this case the scene where Manni leaves the money behind on the train. The earliest films were in black and white, so black and white is now often used to connotate something that has happened in the past. If a filmmaker makes a conscious decision to shoot his or her film in black and white (EG. Schindler's List, Raging Bull) it's usually to help evoke a bygone era. In Run Lola Run it becomes shorthand for events that have happened before the main narrative of the film.
• A series of flashes (quick cuts to another scene) are used to show the process of Manni remembering/realising he left the bag behind. These flashes start out as quick and short to represent flashes of memory, and slow down to represent the process of a memory coming to the forefront of Manni's mind as he realises what he's just done.
• Repetition of the phrase "The bag" is used to highlight its importance.
• The homeless man's thoughts are rendered in colour, to represent the fact that these thoughts aren't memories but imagined possibilities. They are bright and vibrant because the bag of money means excitement and a positive future for this dejected individual.
• Still photos are used to depict flash-forwards for minor characters, this differentiates these future micro-narratives from the larger present day narrative. The use of photographs suggests a documented history, showing the viewer that this is a future history for a particular character.
• Lola's red hair is a conscious decision on the director's part (a piece of trivia: Potente couldn't wash her hair for six weeks because she had to ensure her hair stayed bright red). It ensures that Lola stands out at all times, and might also be representative of other things (such as the idea that red cars go faster... maybe?)
• - Split screens are used to show things that are happening at the same time. Another way to show this would be to intercut the scenes (cross cutting), but Run Lola Run is a fast and kinetic film, and favours getting this information to us in half the amount of time by showing things concurrently.
• Scenes featuring Lola and Manni are shot on film, whereas scenes featuring tertiary characters are shot on video. The use of video suggests an artificiality, whereas using film to depict the two protagonists shows their importance - they're at the centre of the film.
• Slow motion is used for the end of this section of the film, rendering Lola's death as extra-dramatic, and demonstrating the way our impression of time can change in such dramatic instances.
• The fade to red (rather than the traditional fade to black) denotes the end of the first segment, and also highlights the emotional intensity felt by the two lead characters.

Section 2

• Animation is used to depict the crucial scene where Lola starts her run. Each time this sequence is shown there is one significant difference that affects the course of events.
• The red filter is used for the scene of Lola and Manni lying together on the bed. This clarifies this scene as being outside of the main narrative, it's most likely an earlier time (though it could even represent something else, like a scene set inside Lola or Manni's head). Red is also a colour often associated with love, a theme that links in with the intimacy of this scene.
• There's a brief moment where Lola is running and she passes a homeless man, and the camera swings back to show this man running away after she accidentally bumps into him. The camera, much like the viewer, is doing a double-take as we realise that this is the same homeless man who took the money at the beginning of the film. In films, the camera only ever shows us things that are significant. The camera doesn't show us anything that the director doesn't want us to see, and this moment is a prime example of this.
• Interestingly, because Lola is delayed by the fact that her leg is hurt, it means that her father reacts badly to the news his mistress gives him - suggesting that his disappointment with Lola in the first section influenced his choice in that same section of the film.
• The safety catch on the gun is interesting too - we saw in the previous segment that Lola had to be told to take the safety catch off her gun. In this scenario she already knows how to use a gun, suggesting that she has either somehow learned from the last scenario or that she knew how to use a gun all along.
• An overhead shot is used to show Lola running past the ambulance after it goes through the glass sheet. The point of this overhead shot is show the layout of the environment in the aftermath of this accident (it's almost like a crime scene, or a topographical photograph).

Section 3

• Another red scene is used as a transitional device between the second and third sections of the film.
• This time an overhead shot is used to show Lola running in the third section, showing the viewer that this is literally a new perspective on events.
• It should be noted that the camera is almost always moving, a technique that helps create and maintain the film's sense of momentum and pace.
• There are more shots of a slower nature in this last segment, suggesting that this is the section that will be different to the other two... it's the one that's not like the others, this is the scenario that will allow Lola to slow down and stop running.
• The gambling allows Lola and Manni to double their prize... in the other two scenarios they only ever manage to get 100 000 marks. As they gamble it means they come out with twice this amount, a pertinent comment on the themes of free will and fate.
• Freeze frame ending: everything finally stops. This is the end of the story, we don't see anything more after this, it's final!

DIRECTOR: Tom Twyker
WRITER/SOURCE: Tom Twyker
KEY ACTORS: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Armin Rohde, Joachim Krol

RELATED TEXTS:
- Twyker followed up Ron Lola Run with another German film, The Princess and the Warrior, which featured some of the same cast.
- Run Lola Run can be seen as a 'puzzle film' (films from the '90s onwards that focused on increasingly complicated plots, often in a non-linear fashion). Other examples include Pulp Fiction, Memento, the Infernal Affairs trilogy, 11:14, 21 Grams, 12 Monkeys and Go.

AWARDS
BAFTAs - nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.
Independent Spirit - won Best Foreign Film.
Sundance Film Festival - won World Cinema Audience Award
Venice Film Festival - nominated for Golden Lion.