by Tom Tykwer, 1999.
Starring: Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Joachim Król, Nina Petri, Franka Potente.
Rating: 9/10, 7.5/10.
I’ve decided that what Hollywood needs to do is take a ten year hiatus, and stop making films completely for that time. And in those ten years, all the writers, directors, producers, and everyone else should study indie and foreign film. Think about it: how much better would the modern Hollywood drama be if the people who made them had learned from In The Bedroom? How much better would Hollywood romantic comedies be if they had learned from Amélie? And how much better would Hollywood action movies be if they learned from Run Lola Run?
The premise is this: Manni (Bleibtreu) is mixed up in some sort of organised crime. To see if he’s trustworthy, his boss gives him a deal of some sort, where he ends up having to bring the boss a bag with 100,000 in it. He loses the bag. He needs to bring 100,000 marks to his boss just after noon (20 minutes away) or he will be dead. Wrapped in plastic. Just kidding. So he calls his girlfriend, the totally awesome Lola (Potente), and begs her for help. She sets off running, trying to get together the money and reach him before noon, when he will hold up a nearby grocery store for the money.
This, of course, tells you nothing about the movie. For one thing, the story is told three different times, each with a slightly different beginning which alters later events more and more until the ending, which is entirely different each time. For another thing, I haven’t mentioned the fascinating technique where random people Lola runs (ha ha) into get a brief little bit where we see, in the form of flashing photographs, the way the rest of their lives will go. I haven’t mentioned that scenes neither Manni nor Lola are involved in are filmed on video—I’ll leave it to you to decide why. I haven’t mentioned the incredible music, pounding techno with great vocals by Potente herself. I haven’t mentioned that this is the most energetic and propulsive movie I’ve seen in a long, long time.
In addition to all this, between the three sections of the film, there are two scenes showing Manni and Lola lying in bed, talking about love. The image is washed in red, and is stunningly gorgeous.
I like the way the film puts in bizarre little touches and completely refuses to explain them—Lola’s scream that breaks glass and apparently influences roulette wheels and the odd thing she does in the ambulance being two major ones. I like the way it uses split screen—showing Manni waiting, the clock ticking away, and Lola running towards him all at once. I loved the scene when Manni makes his phone call—Manni’s desperation, Lola’s reaction, the way they repeat "die Tasche" (the bag) to each other over and over. In short, there’s really nothing at all I don’t like about Run Lola Run. Basically, it’s just a really super-cool, exciting, entertaining but thoughtful film that everyone deserves to see.