The Big Picture
Run Lola Run
is a groundbreaking film that delves into existentialism and free will.
The film’s innovative storytelling and editing set the stage for future cinematic masterpieces.
Lola’s evolving knowledge in each iteration adds a unique twist, but its ultimate message is familiar.
Run Lola Run is a turbo-charged, adrenaline-fueled thriller that also delivers a heavy dose of existentialism, determinism, and free will theory. Director Tom Tykwer’s 1999 German film stars Franka Potente in the titular role alongside Moritz Bliebtreu as her troubled petty criminal boyfriend, Manni. In many ways, it is considered a game-changer for the notoriously dour and depressing culture of German film and cinema as a whole. It sets out to tell a very simple story and, along the way, indulges in some mind-bending queries that open for discussion a variety of life’s most basic wonderments. For instance, is the butterfly effect a real phenomenon, and does every action we take alter the lives of those we come into contact with and the world around us? The end result is a fantastically shot late-20th-century movie that redefines the way that cinema can both tell a hell of a story and also ask some very profound questions. Tykwer should be applauded for the three-act film that provides thrills, spills, and the unanswerable “what ifs” that steer the German narrative away from the self-loathing and demoralizing theater experience that existed post-World War II with auteurs like Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder and into a post-modern philosophical introspection of cause and effect.
Run Lola Run (1999)
Run Lola Run is a German thriller film that follows Lola, a young woman who must navigate the streets of Berlin to find 100,000 Deutschmarks to save her boyfriend’s life within 20 minutes. With the clock ticking, Lola’s desperation grows as she encounters a series of obstacles and characters that test her resolve.
What Is ‘Run Lola Run’ About?
At its surface, Run Lola Run is the story of a bumbling bagman (Manni) who accidentally loses the 100k Deutschmarks he is sent to retrieve from a drug deal. When he gets off the subway without realizing he has left the cash behind and a street bum (Joachim Krol) has it, he goes into full panic mode, calling Lola for help. If he doesn’t come up with 100k Deutschmarks in the next twenty minutes, his boss Ronnie (Heino Furch) will have him killed. Lola’s desperate response is where Tykwer begins to delve into existentialism and how time and Lola’s choices have an effect not only on the outcome but on the lives of the people she literally runs into trying to get the money and save her boyfriend. The story is told in three separate acts that play out like a video game and have an interactive feel. The film ups the ante with each individual reality and is set to a backdrop of high-octane techno music as Lola runs for miles through the streets of Berlin with her hot pink hair flowing in the breeze.
Franka Potente must have lost ten pounds and slept very well each night shooting Run Lola Run. She is in a dead sprint for half of the movie. The film plays out in twenty real-time minutes, cut into three alternate realities consecutively in thirty-minute increments of screen time. Tykwer sets out to get your blood flowing and your tush onto the edge of its seat from the first scene. The story isn’t anything new, but the urgency and style he shoots are pioneering and first-class. The video game-like reset of our main heroine also requires a mastery of scene continuity. Each iteration of the three acts has to be tweaked perfectly so as not to leave any plot holes or inconsistencies. Run Lola Run is a testament to the power of sharp direction by Tykwer and deft editing by Mathilde Bonnefoy. Remember, this is before the turn of the century and the pre-Christopher Nolan non-linear, time and space-continuum-warping masterpieces like Memento, Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet. What the cast and crew of Run Lola Run achieves is pure innovation in film.
‘Run Lola Run’ Has Its Stumbles
One of the few qualms to be had with Run Lola Run is the choice to have Lola learn from each iteration to the next. When she is portrayed as a cartoon character dashing down the spiral staircase of her apartment building, she is initially tripped by a man standing with his dog and goes tumbling down a flight of stairs. In the third version, she appears to know that the man will extend his leg and leaps over him and his menacing dog. Similarly, in the first version of events, Lola doesn’t know how to work the safety mechanism on the gun, but in a subsequent dimension, she knows how to turn off the safety. This is not a dealbreaker by any means and is more of a creative decision that didn’t necessarily sit well. We prefer that each reset of Lola and her mission be as immersive to her as it is to the viewer. And you could make the argument that her adapting with each reset makes for a more unique sequence, so it isn’t something that deters from the thrilling pace of the movie. Another decision that doesn’t ring true is the blind woman (Monica Bliebtreu) who serves as a sort of oracle who ultimately steers Manni in the right direction as he tries to retrieve the money. She comes across as a bit too convenient and a slipshod plot device. But these are artistic choices and take nothing away from the craftsmanship of the movie as a whole.
Between each reset and the main character’s death, Tykwer shoots a tight frame of Lola and Manni lying beside each other in bed. They ask hypothetical questions like, “What would you do if I died?” What they are seeking is some form of unconditional love that neither Lola nor Manni received growing up. They want the other to say that their world will end and they will never be able to continue living without the other. Tykwer does a beautiful job of capturing Lola and Manni in a Romeo and Juliet Shakespearean light. We are given the option of which version of the story we want to latch onto. Run Lola Run is not just a must-see German film; it’s a precursor to current continuum-cluttering films by modern legends like Nolan and Denis Villeneuve.
Run Lola Run is now playing in theaters in the U.S. Click below for showtimes near you.
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