Lola rennt (1998)

Director:

Tom Tykwer

Writer:

Tom Tykwer (writer)

Release Date:

18 June 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Jeden Tag, jede Sekunde triffst Du eine Entscheidung, die Dein Leben verändern kann.

Plot:

A young woman in Germany has twenty minutes to find and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks to her boyfriend before he robs a supermarket.

Plot Keywords:

Critically Acclaimed | Lotto | Dominatrix | Shampoo | Bizarre

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 26 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

Franka Potente	...	Lola
Moritz Bleibtreu	...	Manni
Herbert Knaup	...	Vater
Nina Petri	...	Jutta Hansen
Armin Rohde	...	Herr Schuster
Joachim Król	...	Norbert von Au
Ludger Pistor	...	Herr Meier
Suzanne von Borsody	...	Frau Jäger
Sebastian Schipper	...	Mike
Julia Lindig	...	Doris
Lars Rudolph	...	Herr Kruse
Andreas Petri	...	Sanitäter
Klaus Müller	...	Croupier
Utz Krause	...	Casino-Manager
Beate Finckh	...	Casino-Kassiererin

Also Known As:

Run, Lola, Run (Australia) (USA)
Lola Runs (USA) (literal English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence and language.

Runtime:

81 min | USA:80 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German | English | Japanese

Colour:

Black and White | Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:16 (DVD) | Iceland:12 | Malaysia:18PL | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Belgium:KT | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Germany:12 (bw) | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:M | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R | Canada:G (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Behrenstraße, St.-Hedwigs-Kathedrale, Mitte, Berlin, Germany

Company:

X-Filme Creative Pool

Trivia:

The two sentences at the opening ("The ball is round" and "The game lasts 90 minutes") are famous quotes by German soccer coaching legend Sepp Herberger.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: The reflection of the crew and tripod can be seen when Lola's father enters the car.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[subtitled version]
Narrator: Mankind, probably the most mysterious species on our planet. A mystery of open questions. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? How do we know what we believe to know? Why do we believe anything at all? Innumerable questions looking for an answer, an answer which will raise the next question and the following answer will raise a following question and so on and so forth. But in the end, isn't it always the same question and always the same answer?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Beneath You (#7.2)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

Introduction

Technically Stunning

Tom Tykwer has truly proven himself as the filmmaker to watch. The little known German director has produced a modern-day masterpiece; a dazzling technical film about how life consists of the decisions we make.

Lola (Franka Potente) receives a phone call from her boyfriend, Manni. (Moritz Bleibtreii) Manni accidentally leaves a bag carrying $100 000 on a train, which is picked up by a homeless man. This leaves Manni in quite a predicament. He is supposed to deliver the money to a gangster by noon, if he fails, then he is likely to be killed. Lola has twenty- minutes to save his boyfriend. Twenty short minutes to somehow find the money and get it to him.

Run Lola Run is a film you expect to see at a Independent film festival, or in a Professor's office at a film school. In no way do I mean that in a negative way, I mean not to intend that the film is of a lower standard with lower production values, rather that the film is a beautifully mastered technical film that uses every filmmaking technique in the book. It is refreshing to see a film like this in the midst of the commercialised, dry-cut, 'traditional' filmmaking that we see on the silver screen so regularly.

As stated before, the film attempts to use a wide range of filmmaking techniques to help get the director's meaning and vision across to the audience. Some of these include speed-up, instant replay, black and white, and even animation in some parts.

It may sound strange, but the film is twenty-minutes long. Well, not really, but it is in context. Tykwer focuses on the twenty-minutes that Lola has, and shows that twenty-minutes three times over, each time with small differences will affect the outcome of the characters. The danger with this kind of technique is that it can threaten to be repetitive. However, the new additions added by Tykwer are very clever and link in perfectly, which will have you gasping for more.

Tykwer wrote and directed this film, and while doing this, he never lost sight of his meaning. His meaning that he is trying to express is that life consists of the decisions we make. While watching the film, this becomes increasingly evident. He also likes to emphasise that time is against Lola during the film. This can be seen when a young woman walks past and Lola asks her for the time, the next shot shows a much older woman answering her question, hence showing the importance of time.

Franka Potente gave a good performance as Lola. Yet, it is hard to say that she was fantastic, because it is a role that requires a great deal of physical acting and we didn't get to know a lot about Lola, hence the film wasn't overly-focusing on her issues, rather her boyfriend's problem. The real standout performance from my point of view came from Moritz Bleibtreii. He actually took on a quite challenging role and pulls it off successfully. He achieves his objective of getting the audience to feel sympathy for the position that he is in.

Run Lola Run is without a doubt, one of the best technical films ever made. A profound, exciting, new age masterpiece that has well and truly left its mark on the film industry.

Five out of Five.