When tigger500 invited me to his Write-Off, the first one that he’s ever hosted, I knew that I had to get right on top of things. Even though the reviews aren’t due until November 17, I went to West Coast Video on November 1. I wanted to pick up Show Me Love, which is a re-titling (rather than a direct translation of the original title, for impendingly obvious reasons) of Fucking Åmål, a Swedish movie about lesbians coming of age. The clerk told me that it isn’t out on video yet. I was very surprised, because I was pretty sure that it was in theaters about two years ago. I said as much to the clerk, and he told me that foreign movies just take a very long time to make it onto video. Actually, though, I think the real problem is that independent movies in general take a very long time (and sometimes are only released on DVD, as Show Me Love seems to have been, according to Amazon.com). Well, anyway, I grabbed Run Lola Run instead.

Run Lola Run (Original German title: Lola Rennt (Lola Runs)) is an excellent action movie from German director . We showed it here at CMU almost two years ago, in January of 2000. I greatly enjoyed it, so I welcomed the chance to watch it again. I ran into Tyler (That’s tigger500, in case you didn’t know.) really early on Friday, November 2--just after midnight, really--and told him what movie I was going to review. He heartily approved, and let me tell you that my man Tyler is pretty damn hard to satisfy. So I was feeling pretty good. I’m writing this at 12:45am on November 3, and I’m going to pop the movie in as soon as I finish watching my tape of today’s Days of Our Lives. So, I’ll write some more for you in about two hours.

So I lied. Big time. It’s 12:25pm on November 15. Sue me. Anyway, Run Lola Run is a very good movie with a fascinating concept. Basically, Lola and her boyfriend Manni are screwed. And not just screwed; über-screwed. Lola (Franka Potente [Der Krieger und die Kaiserin (The Princess and the Warrior), Die Drei Mädels von der Tankstelle (Three Girls at the Gas Station)]) was supposed to pick Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu [Liebe Deine Nächste! (Love Thy Neigbor!), Im Juli (In July)]) up after he successfully completed a drug deal. Unfortunately, her moped was stolen, and in Lola’s absence Manni left a bag full of money on the subway. Now, Lola has just twenty minutes to get 100,000 (hundert tausend) marks, or Manni is sure to be killed by Ronnie, the ruthless drug dealer he works for. Lola decides to try to get the money from her father (Herbert Knaup [Südsee, Eigene Insel (Our Own Island in the South Pacific), Gefährliche Träume - Das Geheimnis Einer Frau (Dangerous Dreams - The Secrets of a Woman)]), who works in a bank, but her effort may be thwarted by what his mistress (Nina Petri [Zwei Brüder (Two Brothers), Gestohlene Leben (Stolen Lives)]) is about to tell him. So, what’s the fascinating concept, you ask? Well, each time that Lola fails in her attempt to save Manni, time jumps back twenty minutes and she gets another chance.

Incidentally, I totally love the German language. When I hear a guy spricht den Deutsch (speaking German), it arouses me instantly. I mean, it’s like that to a certain extent with all foreign languages and accents, but German really gets to me. I think it’s a berechtigung (authority) thing or something like that. Well, anyway, look for random German words in my review.

The central character is without a doubt Lola. She is front and center in almost every frame of the movie. Without her motorrad (motorbike), the only way for her to get anywhere is to run there. When Manni is in danger, she does not hesitate to leap into action. Each time (three, in total) that Lola runs down the stairs of her apartment building, she has a slightly different encounter with a boy and his hund (dog). This encounter sets the pace for the rest of the scenario, as Lola’s placement during key events will prove to be vital. All kinds of hindernisse (impediments) are thrown in her way, but she totally dominates them. Lola seems to have at best a very limited relationship with her parents. Her mother seems unconcerned by Lola’s obviously panicked state, while she and her father clearly know nothing of one another. As a result, Manni is the center of Lola’s world. Lola is extremely resourceful and relatively unfazable, considering everything that is happening to her. Also, oddly enough, Lola has the uncanny ability to shatter glass with her aufruf (scream).

Franka Potente’s last name is Italian for “powerful.” I think that is a very appropriate name, as Franka is just that. I have to admit that she is not especially pretty. Her features are extremely strong, but too hard for the tastes of most men, I think. Still, she is in a striking presence on the screen. Her fiery red hair certainly helps, but even without that her overall bearing is one that demands aufmerksamkeit (attention). It is difficult for me to gauge the effectiveness of the delivery of lines in a foreign language, but I would have to say that Franka Potente’s speech consistently expresses relentless ermittlung(determination).

Manni is hotheaded and impulsive. He is resourceful and has keen instincts, but he usually winds up getting himself into all kinds of trouble anyway because he doesn’t think things through. His own assessment is accurate, namely that he is not a complete person without Lola. Without her, he is seemingly unable to employ his own intelligence. She is the center of his world, even more pronouncedly than vice versa. Moritz Bleibtreu’s last name means “remain faithfully” in German. That’s not really important, but I thought I would let you know. He’s all right looking, I guess, but a bit too scuzzy for my tastes. Well, he does well with a wide variety of facial expressions, including verwirrt (bewildered), terrified, panicked, and enraged.

Lola’s father (He doesn’t get a proper name (Actually, I think they do give his last name at some point, but it wasn’t listed in the credits anywhere.), so we’ll call him Papa.) and his freundin (mistress) Jutta Hansen figure prominently in Lola’s plans, no matter how they work out each time. Jutta has just laid a major revelation on Papa, and Papa’s reaction will depend dramatically on how soon they are interrupted. Papa is a man who is not happy with his life. He does not love his wife, and he cares even less for his children. He holds a special contempt for Lola, which will be explained. Clearly, he has had some definite härten (hardships). Still, that only gets you so far. He’s not a nice guy.

The plot of the movie is very interesting, because it is basically repeated in triplicate. Lola’s plan is to run to the bank to get money from her father, and then run to where Manni is waiting for her, in hopes of getting to him before he does something rash. Such things as a bicyclist, a krankenwagen (ambulance), a bank security guard, and a woman with a baby carriage all figure into her ability to accomplish that task. The three scenarios are very cleverly planned, in that things are revealed in certain scenarios, which make events in other scenarios become deliciously ironic. Other things seem bizarrely fated to happen, no matter what the underlying circumstances. With just one twenty-minute story arc, Run Lola Run shows how seemingly disparate events are intricately zusammengeschalten (interconnected).

As a complement to seeing us how things turn out for Lola and Manni, we are also shown several photographic flip-book stories depicting what happens to some of the people that Lola encounters. For example, when Lola runs past (or into, depending on the scenario) a middle-aged woman pushing a babywagen (baby carriage), that woman becomes: a) a child-stealing fugitive, b) a lottery winner, or c) a Bible-thumping proselytizer. The movie doesn’t fully explain how that person’s future was affected by their brush with Lola, but apparently it makes a big difference for a number of them.

Each time that Lola fails in her mission, there is a brief zwischenspiel (interlude) before she returns to her task. We see Lola and Manni in bed together, talking about their relationship. These scenes are amusing because of the dialogue, which I assume is just as clever in the original German as in the subtitled English. Both Lola and Manni feel insecure in their relationship, because each believes that the other sees them as easily replaceable. Nothing could be farther from the truth, but it is fun to watch them try to convince themselves otherwise. These scenes serve to further develop the relationship between Lola and Manni, which doesn’t happen much during the action scenes, as they are never even together. Also, they both look great in the overhead shot with soft red beleuchtung (lighting).

The movie makes good use of short animated sequences as well. The opening credits scroll to a cartoon version of Lola running through endless flure (hallways), jumping up to smash each name with her fist as it appears. It’s pretty cool. And each time Lola runs down the flight of treppe (stairs) in her building, it is shown in animated form as well. The circumstances that affect Lola’s timing are caricatured in standard cartoon fashion, but it gets the message across.

You might be wondering what on earth the title of my review means. Well, there is a fairly well-known piece of music written by Mozart, called Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music). The soundtrack to Run Lola Run is an awesome set of pumping techno tracks. Technomusik is German for “techno music,” so it seemed appropriate. Anyway, the music accompanies pretty much all the shots of Lola running. It has a strong beat and a deep bass (Um, now might be a good time to remind you all that I don’t actually know anything about music.).

I also like a particular technique that director Tom Tykwer used a few times in the movie. In the course of the dialogue, a key word is isolated and repeated over and over again. For example, when Lola and Manni talk on the phone about the loss of their money, the camera switches back and forth between them as they alternate saying “die tasche” (the bag). And when Lola tries to figure out “wer?” (who?) can give her the money she needs, the words echoes in her head as images of everyone she knows flash by her eyes.

Oh, and there’s something I forgot to mention about German. It’s got a special, kind of random letter in its alphabet. It looks like this: ß. It represents a double “s” sound. For example, it occurs in the word scheiße, which means “shit.” There are several times when the characters exclaim, “scheiße!” You may also have noticed the use of that word in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. That should make sense to you. After all, there are many situations in life when only the word shit will do. In fact, some may say that this paragraph was nothing more than an excuse to use the word shit a number of times. In actuality, however, I just wanted to give some props to that crazy curly-B-looking thing. Scheiße! Can’t you guys keep your heads out of the gutter for even a few minutes?!

Well, the time has come for a discussion of die quantenphysik (quantum physics). There is a quantum theory that states that whenever an event has more than one possible outcome, all of those outcomes do actually occur, but each in a different quantenwirklichkeit (quantum reality). So, all these wirklichkeiten exist simultaneously, running in parallel to each other. It would seem, then, that what we are actually seeing is the same scenario played out in three different quantenwirklichkeiten.

There’s a problem with that theory, though. The infinitely many quantenwirklichkeiten are completely independent of one another, with no contact between any two existences. At least, that’s how they explained it in the episode of Star Trek: Das Folgende Erzeugung (The Next Generation) where I learned all this. You see, Lieutenant Worf had been exposed to some sort of radiation that caused him to jump from reality to reality whenever he was near Geordi’s visor, and only he was aware of it. Nobody else on the Enterprise had any knowledge of the other wirklichkeiten, or what they themselves were doing in them.

In Run Lola Run, though, Lola seems to carry some knowledge between successive scenarios. There is one particular incident where Lola didn’t know a certain fact, then learns the fact, and still knows the fact the next time it all happens, even though she hasn’t learned it again. I assure you, it was done quite prominently and intentionally. So, we are not just being granted a glimpse into a few quantenwirklichkeiten that happen to exist simultaneously. Rather, it seems that Lola is at the epicenter of some supernatural phänomen (phenomenon), whereby she is actually transferring some part of her consciousness across quantengrenzen (quantum boundaries), and also has been granted the preternatural ability to shatter glass with her vocal cords.

Run Lola Run is an action-packed race through urban German streets. It represents the flawless execution of an intriguing concept, and is well worth watching. In fact, multiple viewings will allow you to appreciate the movie even more, as you will be better able to recognize the bearing that earlier events have on later ones. Oh, and one more thing. Subtitles. Always get the version with subtitles. Never dubbed. Subtitles. Got it?

Okay, that just about finishes me on this one. I’m going to post this thing as early as I can today, since I’ve got all kinds of stuff to do later on. First of all, it’s my birthday (Augh! I’m not a teenager anymore!), and second of all, my friends and I are going to see Harry Potter and the Stein der Weisen (Sorcerer’s Stone) tonight (Yay! Clinging to my lost youth! Oh, and look for my review soon.).

Dieses ist gewesen (This has been) my entry in tigger500’s Foreign Film Write-Off. Now, not to make fun of good ol’ Tyler, but his idea of a standard inclusion paragraph is pretty pathetic. Check it out:

FOREIGN FILM WRITE_OFF--It must have been a film that wasn't nominated for an Academy Award for Foreign Film and be a favorable review.

tigger500
DavidK23
artbyjude
cletta1201
mike.holmes

Now, don’t worry. I’m going to sit down with him myself (assuming he doesn’t throttle me after he reads this), and we’ll talk about more descriptive and interesting ways to express the nature of his write-offs. And I’ll also be helping him create links to these reviews on his profile page. Whether he likes it or not. ‘Cause, that’s just what you do when you host a write-off. Understand, Tyler?

Well, thanks for reading. Schluf gezundt und zeit gezundt (Sleep well and be well)! Okay, so that was Yiddish. Sue me again.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS