Run Lola Run

    (1998). Run Lola Run. Retrieved from http://hattershostels.com/events/run-lola-run/

    Run Lola Run is definitely one of the unique and interesting films that I have watched through. The movie begins with Lola receives a phone call from Manni, her boyfriend who works as a runner for the mobsters, lost a bag of cash that he had smuggled into the country on a subway train. This leaves Manni with no choice of deciding to rob a grocery store nearby but Lola stops him. In the next 20 minutes, Manni will wait for Lola for the money if she is able to raise it or else he will take the action to rob. On the other side, Lola has to think of a way to raise 100,000 Deutschmarks for Manni in that short period of time. Three alternative endings all depend on different decisions and actions made by Lola during her run. Though not all of which the three different outcomes result with a happy ending. 

    Certainly, the film portrays a great deal of exciting storytelling; with the fusion of mixing some cartoon animation to express the frantic run by Lola and the repetition of Lola’s attempt to collect the needed amount of cash with minor changes to every setups. Mostly, the streets she runs through remain the same, but the people she met have slight changes in their behavior and each foretell events change depends on their attitudes. The forecast of how each of the people Lola run through will end up with are shown in a fast-pace cut shot. The images of their endings were edited in metric montage in black and white color and somehow making the fact that audiences are actually looking at their lives through photos. The message is that every small attitude towards an event can cause huge difference in consequences. To take an example, in the first run, the woman strolling with her baby swear at her then the images of her baby being taken away revealed whereas for the third run, when Lola rushed by her, this time images revealed that she has joined the church, her manner was better. The same goes to Lola where the last decision she made not only earned her an extra one thousand Deutschmarks but Manni also managed to settle his money matter with his employer.

(1998). The first encounter of Lola with this woman [Image, screen capture]. 

(1998). The third encounter of Lola with this woman [Image, screen capture].

    The director of Run Lola Run (1998), Tom Tykwer is belongs to a generation that embraces post-modernism and pop culture rather than following the classic way of portraying film. He broke the boundaries of genre and launched an avant garde style of aesthetic film practices to create a new direction in German film-making. The film itself is a product of its own time where the whole process of Lola running has a huge relationship with the obsession of time.

(1998). Some visual composition that represents limit of time [Image, screen capture].

   The film employs the element of pop culture that are deviant, nonconformist, disorder and that challenges the conventional forms of contemporary film. Pop is the key to present where the fast-pace editing locks the audience into the present and reflects the contemporary German’s urban settings where the life of post-war era is frustrating and buzzed. (Assheur. T) The mash-up of visual composition with the fast-pace sequences has led German to a new wave in film-making. The film experiments the visual playfulness of integrating the realm of game into reality. Tykwer cleverly enhances the pleasure of the spectator by incorporating the risk taking of making selection in reality like in games in his film. Thus, having three different outcomes with alternate selection made by Lola.

(1998). The first ending [Image, screen capture].

(1998). The second ending [Image, screen capture].

(1998). The third and last ending [Image, screen capture].

   This had discovered the possibilities in German cinema. Tykwer resorts to the aesthetic practices of avant-garde as he firmly wants the film to direct spontaneity with linear storyline. (Tykwer. T) According to the scriptwriter of Run Lola Run, he adopts the hybridity to the genre of the film that he experiments with different types of genre and includes it all into one film. The disintegration of classical narrative also represents as one of the traits in pop culture.  

    According to Tykwer confession, his inspiration of creating this film is in fact the desire of combining body movement, emotions and female body into one that acts as a vehicle to portray desperation and passion. Therefore, the character Lola was born with red hair blown while running to save his love. She literally manifests the essence of the entire film and also produces the new image of a tough and rebellious heroine on that era. How the film begins with an animated figure of Lola into the real life Lola has the intention of placing firmly a fantasy character invented into a real society. 

(1998). The integration between animated Lola and real Lola in the film [Image, screen capture].

    She is the visual pleasure for the ideal figure for woman: energetic, powerful, passionate and determined. Besides, Tykwer also attached a fairy-tale like romance bond on Lola with the security guard, Schuster. Each time Lola met him, he will worded out words from being sarcastic gradually to being kind and sweet. For instance, in the first meeting, Schuster ironically calls her the princess of the house then on second meeting, Schuster lectures her with the virtue of queen and finally, the last meeting he proclaims “you’re finally here darling” with the sound effect of loud pounding comes in. Other than that, on their last encounter in the ambulance, Lola was able to resuscitate him by staying by his side. 

(1998). First encounter with Schuster [Image, screen capture].

(1998). Second encounter with Schuster [Image, screen capture].

(1998). Third encounter with Schuster with the enhanced sound effect of heart pounding [Image, screen capture]. 

(1998). Lola revives Schuster by staying by his side [Image, screen capture].

    Through the perspective of cinematic language, it is obvious that fast-pace editing was vastly applied in this film. Not only has it had the purpose to reveal the urban settings of contemporary German but also to emphasize the importance of time in making decision during that era. Before the opening credit appears, it is interesting how the shoots focus on each sub character that appears in the film and then to aerial camera view where the crowd moves to create the film title. 

(1998). From the crowd walking to the aerial view of crowd forming the film title [Image, screen capture].

    Again, from the aerial perspective the camera moves rapidly into Lola’s house in which the same camera movement goes to shooting Manni in the phone booth. Interestingly, the movie directs the audience in a rapid speed in which distinct from the usual classic way of directing the audience in a slow pace. The way of moving the audience fast to the story though gives a sudden confusion, it somehow stimulates the nervous sensation to a certain extent where the audience will start to think of what is something bad happening.

(1998). The rapid speed of directing the audience into the story [Image, screen capture].

   Besides, the importance of prop in Run Lola Run is also well portrayed through editing. For instance, during the scenes when Lola and Manni mentioned “the bag”, rhythmic montage is used where they keep repeating “the bag” until the bum, main cause to the lost of bag, saying “the bag” as well. The purpose is to have the audience realize the importance of the cash to both Lola and Manni.

(1998). The recur of the word "the bag" [Image, screen capture].

   Despite, in the beginning of scenes, wipe transitions were also massively used for flashback. Instead of using classical low pace of fade in for flashback, the wipe transition could have the audiences dive in more quickly to the overall situation of Lola and Manni were into. For example, Lola explains to Manni about she missed the time to fetch Manni in front of the cyclops’ trading place while she thinks back, the similar transition also applied on Manni’s flashback.

(1998). Wipe transition used in one of the flashbacks [Image, screen capture].

   Moreover, split-screen that used in the film was to convey the message of incidents that happen simultaneously consider with the space and time. Furthermore, it is also to show the exuberant sprint of Lola through metropolis. For instance, Lola rushes to Manni to stop him from robbing and the scene where Lola rushes to ask for his father’s help. Both of the events show how Lola was already about to reach them though she did not succeed in meeting them every time.

(1998). Split-screen appear in each time Lola rushed to Manni as well as applied in one of the scenes where Lola was trying to catch up with his father [Image, screen capture].

   Despite that, the successive use of cut editing is visible for the first run ending. After the flashback of Lola, she claims that she did not want to leave at all thus the fast pace edit between the red trash bag and the red telephone carried in. The message is to give Lola a chance to reverse back time to the point she begins her run, which she says “stop” just when the phone falls. That is the starting point of the whole plot.

(1998). Repetitive cut shots between the red trash bag and the phone [Image, screen capture].

    Instead of using sound as a sub tool to support the flow of narrative, Tykwer emphasized it a lot in the overall film. The projection of sound volume increased every time Lola starts running, thus making the audience realize the relationship between the settings with the music. The techno music beat, in fact, lead the audience through a sensation of excitement in which the anticipation of “what is going to happen” in the audience towards the three alternate stories rise.  

    In a nutshell, Run Lola Run is absolutely a new direction of film-making for the German film industry. Instead of follow the trend of classical Hollywood movie, Tykwer displayed new aesthetic practises in film language and created a form of avant-garde art in the film-making field. If you like to dive into a realm of fantasy, Run Lola Run is definitely one of the films that embrace the escapism and would visually rouse the pleasure of watching it. 

References

No author (n.d.). Run Lola Run (1998) Plot Summary. IMDb. Retrieved July 4, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130827/plotsummary

Ebert, R. (1999, July 2). Run Lola Run. Roger Ebert.com. Retrieved July 4, 2015, from http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/run-lola-run-1999

Kosta, B. (n.d.). Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run and the Usual Suspects: The Avant-Garde, Popular Culture, and History. Retrieved July 4, 2015, from https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472113844-ch11.pdf