Filmed with a frenetic flair to match its oh-so-frenetic storyline, writer/director Tom Tykwer has us sprinting along with the protagonist in his 1998 hit Run Lola Run.
A unique, creative and somewhat out-there premise, this German motion picture is, in a way, reminiscent of Krzysztof Kieœlowski’s Polish film Blind Chance, which was reviewed on Filmizon.com back in June of 2016 – here is a link to it, if you are interested: http://filmizon.com/movie_reviews/if-you-get-a-chance/
Our mind is, simply put, amazing. We make decisions in a split second, and that moment can change our life just as quickly. Dealing with this idea, Tykwer introduces us to Lola (Franka Potente), whose just received a distressing call from her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu). A low-level criminal that is being tested by his boss, Lola was supposed to pick him up after his shady dealings. But, bad luck rears its ugly head (as her Moped is stolen) and Manni is forced to find his own way home. Sneaking onto the subway, he accidentally leaves the one hundred thousand German Deutsche Marks he is transporting on the train, after being nabbed for not purchasing a ticket. Witnessing a homeless man (Joachim Król) picking it up, he knows all is lost. Meeting his boss in only twenty minutes, he is desperate enough to threaten to rob a store just outside of the phone booth he is making the call from.
Trying to ease his tension, Lola says that she will find the money and be there by noon. Making her way to her father’s (Herbert Knaup) bank, she encounters many unusual scenarios, including a man with a dog in a stairwell (the only animated section of the film – other than the opening credits), bumping into a lady pushing a baby carriage, running beside a biker who asks her to purchase it, making her way through a group of nuns, and causing a car crash between her father’s colleague Mr. Meier (Ludger Pistor) and a BMW full of thugs.
Finally making it to her father, she is allowed into the locked rooms by a security guard (Armin Rohde), but is not greeted graciously by her dad, as he is dealing with a rather complicated situation in his office. Escorted out, Lola continues on her way, seeing a near crash between an ambulance and a giant piece of glass being moved across a busy street. Finally making it to her beau, I will leave what happens a secret, but, to tie it into the above mentioned Blind Chance, we are eventually returned back to the beginning when Lola receives the call (twice more), each time learning how minuscule changes can affect the outcome of those twenty minutes.
A fascinating concept, many will contemplate what path is the real one. . . or, if they all somehow occurred. Looking for little threads that may connect the three journeys, there are suggestions that Lola may have experienced them all. Upon the couple’s meeting in the third timeline, look to Potente’s acting as a possible suggestion that she can recall all of her trials and tribulations, unlike the completely unaware Manni. The use of a gun (when that person did not know how to in the first iteration) and a heart attack are both examples of the possible carryover from the previous visions. Similarly, there is a blind woman who can be found outside the phone booth when Manni makes a call, and she seems to play a role in how things turn out. It leaves us with many a question, though they do not detract from the experience, rather, they are intriguing to ponder and develop hypotheses around. For those who love to contemplate philosophy, likely discussions will arise about free will versus determinism (the blind lady would likely play into this perspective), as well as the aforementioned ‘blind chance’ that plays a role in life. Fans of Woody Allen’s Match Point will undoubtedly reference the role luck plays in that film. . . “I’d rather be lucky than good”. Another interesting example finds flashes of people’s futures appearing as Lola runs by them – visions of what could be.
Very much revolving around the spiral, Tykwer often spins his camera, circling round the characters, matching the hints found onscreen. You will notice that the staircase Lola runs down at the beginning of each segment is a spiral one, while the Spirale Café rests just outside the phone booth Manni makes the call from. At one point, Lola enters a casino and a painting rests above the action. For those Hitchcock fans, it will immediately bring to mind the distinctive hair and clothing of Kim Novak’s character in 1958’s Vertigo – viewed only from the backside (it was painted in fifteen minutes by production designer Alexander Manasse, as Tykwer wanted a Vertigo reference to adorn the bland and empty wall in the casino). With the spiral staircase mentioned above also being reminiscent of the Master of Suspense’s movie, there is perhaps no better film to reference for its twisty turns and unique structure than Vertigo.
Using split screen and other techniques (the colours yellow and red help signify the danger Manni and Lola, respectively, are in), Tykwer writes a fascinating tale that is uniquely formed and tied together. Even the man who stole Lola’s Moped at the beginning of the story comes into play towards the end. Clever, original and visually different (edited at a breakneck pace, it slows as it approaches the climax), Run Lola Run is a mind-bending adventure with touches of dark comedy (the hapless, lousy cop is just one example). So, win big and see this twenty minute repeat, just don’t forget your running shoes.
German with English subtitles
You are narrating the film from memory here. I am presently reading Gerald Martin’s hefty biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez where he recounts how the grandfather would take the young Gabito to the movies and have him repeat the entire plot line the following day: “so I not only fixed the films very clearly in my mind, but was also concerned to know how to narrate them because I knew he would make me tell him the story step by step to see if I had understood.”