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For those of you who have never experienced a foreign film in your life, Run Lola Run may be the perfect opportunity to see what foreign films can do. In fact, this film may be one of the best foreign films ever made. Out of the entire Sundance lineup, Run Lola Run is the only one that impressed me enough to put it on my top ten list of the year. Unfortunately, which year is indiscernable. While it is a 1998 release, it won't be released in America until mid-1999. Germany selected it as the Oscar entry into the foreign film category, and it isn't hard to see why they would select this film. As is, I will hold off putting it in my top ten list until 1999.
Exactly what makes Run Lola Run such a success isn't very clear. After all, it has the same style and overpowering technique that made William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet one of the worst films ever made. So what makes this different? Obviously the reaction of the crowd I saw the film with was remarkably positive. It is one of the very, very few films I have seen that made people cheer and applaud during the film. It is, in definition, a crowd pleaser, but that term tends to be saved for the sentimental crap of Hollywood that divides critics and audiences right down the middle. Here, the term crowd pleaser is accurate: this film is bound to please anyone who sees it. It was so popular that it took home the Audience Award for World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival (actually, it tied with another entry). This could be the most successful subtitled foreign film to hit American theaters in years.
Run Lola Run (a.k.a. Lola rennt) is the most relentlessly fast-paced film to grace the screen this decade. Taking a hint from both Kieslowski's Blind Chance and Howitt's Sliding Doors, Run Lola Run centers on three different scenarios of the same situation. Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), a local criminal's errand boy, collects 100,000 Marks (that's about $59,000 in American currency) from a jewel dealer and then loses them on the subway ride home. On the subway with him was a bum, searching for freebees. Manni, completely out of his mind, calls up his girlfriend Lola (Franka Potente), a cool and intelligent woman with a lot of connections. He tells her what happened, and she dashes off, running frantically around, trying to scrounge up 100,000 Marks in twenty minutes.
A twenty minute plot can not sustain 81 minutes of a film, so it was puzzling to wonder what director/writer Tom Tykwer would do. What he does is ingenious: he plays this sequence three different times, each being influenced differently by one catalyst--a dog and his owner. In the stairwell during an animated sequence, Lola first runs by the dog without a hitch. In the second sequence, she trips over the owner's outstretched leg. In the third sequence, she leaps over the dog and continues on her way. These seemingly simple incidences have completely outrageous outcomes.
Of course, seeing the same sequence over and over could easily get boring. But Tykwer ensures that it does not by keeping the pace up with a frantic soundtrack, incredible cinematography, and likable actors. One could easily call this film a longer version of an MTV music video. That, of course, would do a great disservice to the film as Run Lola Run has something no music video ever has--substance. Taking on rich themes such as luck, chance, and destiny, the film circles and circles, trying to find an ending that everyone would like. The film has three different endings, each paramounting to a climax of inevitability. Thankfully, inevitable doesn't always mean predictable. Sometimes, this film catches you completely off guard, and makes you applaud its audacity to do what many consider risky. What chances Tykwer does take always pay off. The result is a film of sheer power, never stopping a beat to let viewers catch their breath.
Run Lola Run could easily be described as a practice in technical proficiency, similar to the films James Cameron produces. But like Cameron, Tykwer gives us stories that we can learn from, instead of the brainless fodder that plagues many "teenage-boy" movies. Even teenage boys are going to love watching this film--it's entertaining enough for them to have an enjoyable time, and it's smart enough for adults to not get bored by its overwhelming sensoral impacts. The cinematography caught me off guard, using the Steadicam to capture some of the most beautiful images ever caught on film. The opening title sequence is the first noteworthy one: a pendulum swings back and forth, the camera tilts up and follows this pendulum to the face of a clock. The camera then enters the clock and sends us on a breathtaking animated journey through the cast. But Tykwer doesn't stop there... we get a lineup of the supporting characters amidst a mass of blurry figures. One of these supporting characters kicks a soccer ball into the air, the camera follows it up, and then tilts down to show all the blurry people grouping together to form the words: Lola rennt. Chills were sent up and down my spine. The cinematography that follows is equally impressive--if anything, cinematographer Frank Griebe deserves an Oscar nomination.
Two other completely technical aspects are the editing and the soundtrack. Editor Matilde Bonnefoy probably had the hardest part of the entire crew. Trying to piece together this film must have been an enormous project, since the three sequences all share many similar aspects but are different in small and subtle ways. Just thinking about the amount of work boggles my mind. The soundtrack, which received a lot of acclaim from the audience, incorporates a lot of techno-style sounds with the voice of Potente. Without the soundtrack, Run Lola Run would not have worked... period. It's as simple as that. Obviously the editor had to work hand-in-hand with the music supervisor, cutting in time with the music. Juxtaposition works to great effect here, as does the use of video tape and animation, both of which are used quite extensively. This is one of those rare examples where technical wonderment leads to the appreciation of the story.
A lot must be said about Franka Potente who said she had to run about 50% of the total shooting period. Potente, an actress who obviously has a lot of potential and charisma on screen, is a true find. The twenty-three year old German actress defies all logic, portraying a character who resorts to illegal acts to maintain the money for her boyfriend. She's a character unlike any I can remember... a wholly original, fleshed-out woman of the 90s. Bliebtreu obviously has a smaller and less flashy role, but he nicely counters Potente's strong performance as a man desperate and completely illogical. Herbert Knaup has a very small role as Lola's father, but still manages to give us a three-dimensional portrait. The rest of the cast is equally good, but this is Potente's show, and she runs with it... literally.
Director Tykwer avoids the mistake of many directors who try this style of filming (the most notable failure is Baz Luhrmann). He realizes that his part in the film is of the essence. If he doesn't get the pacing just right, the film could be a disastrous failure. Thankfully, he is talented to no end, creating a glossy and poetic story of two people in love. The reason it does succeed is that Tykwer goes all-out in a way Luhrmann didn't. Tykwer throws everything he can possibly think of into the film. The result is a completely expressionistic form of storytelling--Tykwer may have uncovered a new form of German Expressionism. As a fellow critic stated, it's an auteur's eye-candy. What more could we want?
Run Lola Run is rated R for language and violence. Despite its German origins, the film feels American in style and pace. It's a film that can be incorporated into any nationality... the appeal is as universal as that of Titanic. Anyone can enjoy this fine piece of filmmaking without feeling the slightest bit guilty. It's a pure adrenaline rush, paced with a dream logic that makes complete sense while the viewer gets thoroughly engaged into the story. Run Lola Run may prove to be the film that opens up the foreign film market to Americans. It may have subtitles, but the entire feel is a universal one. This is one of the most memorable films I have ever seen. It's a truly original and exciting piece of work. It is one of this year's best films.
Rating: out of