Run Lola Run

Run Lola Run
German-language poster
Directed by	Tom Tykwer
Produced by	Stefan Arndt
Written by	Tom Tykwer
Narrated by	Hans Paetsch
Starring	Franka Potente Moritz Bleibtreu
Music by	Tom Tykwer Johnny Klimek Reinhold Heil
Cinematography	Frank Griebe
Editing by	Mathilde Bonnefoy
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics
Release date(s)	August 20, 1998 (Germany) June 18, 1999 (US)
Running time	76 minutes
Country	Germany
Language	German English Japanese
Budget	$1.75 million
Gross revenue	$7,267,585

Run Lola Run (German: Lola rennt, literally Lola Runs) is a 1998 German thriller film written and directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Franka Potente as Lola and Moritz Bleibtreu as Manni. The story follows a woman who needs to obtain 100,000DM in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life.

Plot summary

The house in Albrechtstraße (Berlin-Mitte), where the three episodes begin.

The film begins with Lola (Franka Potente) receiving a phone call from her distraught boyfriend Manni. He is a small-time criminal and has lost 100,000DM belonging to his boss by accidentally leaving it on a train. After the doors of the train closed, he saw a homeless man pick up the bag of money but he was unable to get back onto the train before it left the station. Upon not seeing any trace of his money or the homeless man at the next station, Manni assumes the money is long gone.

Manni has to get the money within 20 minutes before his boss finds out, and plans to rob nearby supermarket. Lola urges him to wait and tells him she will organize the money. She decides to ask her father, who is a bank manager.

The main part of the film is divided in three "runs". Each run starts from the same situation but develops differently and has a different outcome. Each run contains various flash-forward sequences, showing how the lives of the people that Lola bumps into develop after the encounter. In each run, those people are affected in different ways.

First run

Lola starts running and encounters a punk with a dog in the staircase. The dog growls at her, causing her to sprint faster. Lola runs through the streets of Berlin towards her father's bank. On her way, she causes a car accident with a man later shown to be her father's colleague. When she arrives at the bank, Lola's father refuses to give her any money, telling her that he feels unappreciated at home, that he is leaving Lola and her mother for his mistress and that he isn't Lola's real father. Lola runs on to meet Manni, arriving a few moments after the deadline. Manni's robbery is already in progress; Lola decides to help him rob the store. The two flee on foot afterwards but find themselves surrounded by police, and a nervous police officer accidentally shoots Lola in the chest.

The scene fades out to show Lola and Manni talking in bed, with Lola questioning Manni about his love for her. Lola then says "Stop" and the film restarts at the point where she started running.

Second run

In the second run, the punk with a dog trips Lola, injuring her leg and causing her to limp slightly. She again causes a car accident involving the father's colleague. Lola arrives at the bank a few moments later because of her limp, which leaves enough time for her father's mistress to explain that she is pregnant by someone else. Lola hears more of the argument this time, and becomes infuriated. She robs her father's bank with a gun grabbed from the bank's security officer, and takes off with the money to meet Manni. When Lola reaches Manni he is run down by an ambulance as he crosses the street to meet her.

The scene again fades to Lola and Manni in bed, this time with the roles reversed: Manni questions Lola about her love for him.

Third run

The third time Lola is a split second faster, as she leaps over the punk on the steps. This time she doesn't cause an accident, and the business associate is able to pick up Lola's father. She misses her father completely and keeps on running. Lola enters a casino, buys a single 100-mark chip, and finds a roulette table. She wins two consecutive bets on the number "20", which gives Lola 126,000DM, more than enough money to help Manni. She hitches a ride in the ambulance from the previous runs, as it stops. The ambulance is carrying the security guard from her father's bank who has apparently suffered a heart attack. She takes his hand, and moments later, his heart rate begins to return to normal.

Meanwhile, Manni sees the homeless man who took his money in the beginning of the film. Manni chases him down and retrieves his money but, feeling sorry for him, gives him his gun in return. Lola arrives to find Manni stepping out of a car and shaking his boss's hand. The movie ends with Manni asking Lola what is in the bag she is carrying.

Cast

• Franka Potente as Lola
• Moritz Bleibtreu as Manni
• Herbert Knaup as Papa
• Nina Petri as Frau Hansen
• Armin Rohde as Herr Schuster
• Joachim Król as Norbert von Au
• Ludger Pistor as Herr Meier
• Suzanne von Borsody as Frau Jäger
• Sebastian Schipper as Mike
• Julia Lindig as Doris
• Lars Rudolph as Herr Kruse
• Ute Lubosch as Mama
• Monica Bleibtreu as the blind woman
• Heino Ferch as Ronnie
• Hans Paetsch as Narrator

Themes

With its time limit and "multiple lives" concept, the film owes a clear debt to Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski, who explored the theme in films such as Blind Chance, The Double Life of Véronique, and Three Colors: Red. Tykwer would go on to direct Heaven, which Kieślowski (who died in 1996) had planned as his next film.^[1]

The film features two allusions to Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo. Like that film, it features recurring images of spirals, such as the 'Spirale' Cafe behind Manni's phone box and the spiral staircase down which Lola runs. In addition, the painting on the back wall of the casino of a woman's head seen from behind is based on a shot in Vertigo: Tykwer disliked the empty space on the wall behind the roulette table and commissioned production designer Alexander Manasse to paint a picture of Kim Novak as she appeared in Vertigo. Manasse could not remember what she looked like in the film and so decided to paint the famous shot of the back of her head. The painting took fifteen minutes to complete.^[2]

There are also several references to German culture in the film. The most notable is the use of Hans Paetsch as a narrator. Paetsch is a famous voice of children's stories in Germany, recognized by millions. Many of the small parts are cameo roles by famous German actors (for example the bank teller). Also, two quotes by German football legend Sepp Herberger appear: "The ball is round, the game lasts 90 minutes, everything else is pure theory," and, "After the game is before the game."

On several occasions the theme of free will vs. determinism is integrated into the film. The opening narration states the futility of asking questions, as one leads to another and we only travel in circles. Lola's interactions with other people are similar in that a small conversation or interaction with the people on the streets lead to other interactions. For example, the man on the bike can become a happy, married man or a bum. The concept of free will is also presented because she has three different realities to choose from.

In his review of the film, Roger Ebert noted how the film's structure was very similar to that of a video game. Ebert mentioned the kinetic style of the film and commented that the "heroine is like the avatar in a video game -- Lara Croft made flesh."^[3] The narrative itself evokes the typical video game. Just like a character in a video game, Lola dies once and sees Manni die once before figuring out how to "beat the level." The opening of the film sets the film up as a game, albeit a soccer game, however the point remains. Just like somebody who must replay a level in a video game and learn from their mistakes, Lola is given several more chances to successfully complete her mission.

Connections between the runs

Throughout the film, Lola bumps into people, talks to them, or simply passes them by, and the sound of a camera flash warming up can be heard. Their resulting futures are then conveyed in a series of still frames. The futures are widely divergent from encounter to encounter. In one scenario, a woman whom Lola accidentally bumps into remains poor and kidnaps an unattended baby after her child was taken away by social workers. In another scenario the woman wins the lottery and becomes rich. In the third scenario, the woman experiences a religious conversion. The sound of the camera flash warming up is repeated a final time at the end of the film, when Lola smiles at Manni's question about what's in her bag.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film, by Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, and Reinhold Heil, includes numerous musical quotations of the sustained string chords of The Unanswered Question, an early 20th-century chamber ensemble work by American composer Charles Ives. In the original work, the chords are meant to represent the "the Silences of the Druids—who Know, See and Hear Nothing."

Locations

A supermarket in Berlin-Charlottenburg, which served as the filming location for Manni's and Lola's robbery.

Run Lola Run was filmed extensively in and around Berlin, Germany. Here are some of the locations:

• Lola's apartment - The apartment block is located at 13-14 Albrechtstraße, Berlin-Mitte, near Friedrichstraße railway station.
• U-Bahn (underground) train overpass - The location is on the north corner of Falckensteinstraße and Oberbaumstraße.
• Bridge passageway - Oberbaumbrücke
• U-Bahn station in the middle of the road - It is the south entrance of Französische Straße U-Bahn station. The entrance is actually located on Friedrichstraße. Lola appears from Jägerstraße, runs across the road and then around the corner in to Französische Straße. The actual path Lola takes differs from run to run.
• The Nuns - North end of Mauerstraße.
• Lola and the Cyclist - Further south of Mauerstraße. The cyclist appears from Französische Straße.
• Shop Underpassage - The shop underpassage that Lola runs in Run 1 is on corner of Charlottenstraße and Französische Straße.
• Deutsche Transfer Bank - The bank is located at the corner of Behrenstraße and Hedwigskirchgasse, near the Opera. The actual location is Behrenstraße 37.
• Square Tile Pattern Pavement - Gendarmenmarkt and the Konzerthaus.
• The Supermarket - The supermarket is located at the south-west corner of the intersection of Osnabrücker Straße and Tauroggener Straße.
• Lola runs in front of lorry - The corner of Hinter dem Gießhaus and Unter den Linden, in front of the Deutsches Historisches Museum.
• The Casino - The exterior of the casino is located on Unter den Linden, facing the Deutsches Historisches Museum.
• Lola gets shot - North end of Cuvrystraße.
• Manni getting arrested - Deutsche Oper U-Bahn station.
• Herr Meier coming out of his garage - The location is 23-24 Wallstraße.
• The Ambulance and Glass - The intersection of Buchholzer Straße and Greifenhagener Straße. Lola and the ambulance start at the south end of the Greifenhagener Straße and travel North.
• The 2 Cars and Scooter Crash - Intersection Hussitenstraße and Max-Ulrich-Straße.
• Wishing Manni to wait - Shortly after Strausberger Platz, along Karl Marx Allee, running east. In the film the Fernsehturm is obscured by the trees.

Critical reception

The film was nominated for 41 awards, winning 26. These included the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Film at the Seattle International Film Festival, and seven separate wins at the German Film Awards^[4]

As of September 21, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 93% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 79 reviews.^[5] On Metacritic, another review aggregator, the film had an average score of 77 out of 100, based on 29 reviews, stating the film as having "generally favourable reviews".^[6] The Internet Movie Database, IMDb, shows Run Lola Run as having earned 8 out of 10.^[7]

In contrasting reviews, Film Threat's Chris Gore said of the film, "[It] delivers everything great foreign films should - action, sex, compelling characters, clever filmmaking, it's unpretentious (a requirement for me) and it has a story you can follow without having to read those annoying subtitles. I can't rave about this film enough -- this is passionate filmmaking at its best. One of the best foreign films, heck, one of the best films I have seen", while Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Chicago Reader stated, "About as entertaining as a no-brainer can be--a lot more fun, for my money, than a cornball theme-park ride like "Speed," and every bit as fast moving. But don't expect much of an aftertaste.".^[8][9]

The movie was released on DVD on December 21, 1999, and was released on Blu-ray on February 19, 2008.

• Ranked #86 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.^[10]

References

External links

• Official website
• Run Lola Run at the Internet Movie Database
• Run Lola Run at Allmovie
• Run Lola Run at Box Office Mojo
• Run Lola Run at Rotten Tomatoes
• List of locations used in the film from movie-locations.com

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