Run Lola Run (German: Lola rennt, literally Lola Runs) is a 1998 German crime 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 100,000 German marks (50,984 Euro) in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life. The film's three scenarios are reminiscent of the 1981 Krzysztof Kieślowski film Blind Chance.
Textual analysis
Sound - The soundtrack consists of techno, electronic music. This helps move the narrative along and reinforces the idea that Lola has little time to complete her task. The music is part of popular culture and is aimed to attract a mass audience.
Mise en scene - The colour red is one of the most prominent colours in the film for instance, the red phone, red ambulance and cars, red bag of stolen money and Lola's red hair. They all carry connotations of the danger Manni that will be in if the money cannot be found which creates a constant sense of urgency.
The red filter used during the bedroom scene represents the ‘flood’ of danger they are in as Lola lays dying on the street.
Editing - Many different transitions are used during the film, making the film quite jumpy and fast. This makes the film more stimulating and exciting to watch. The excitement markets the film toward a mass audience as the film is not too artsy and almost everyone can enjoy it. The quick cuts demonstrate the fact that Lola has to constantly think on her feet in order to find the money and the wipe transitions are a reference to time and how it is slipping away from Lola.
The MTV style editing breaks down the distinctions between high and low art and culture, and instead embraces pop culture.
Camera - Various camera techniques are used to represent the characters in particular ways. The high angle shot of Lola outside the bank shows how powerless she is as she does not have the money in order to save Manni.
The cinema verite style of camerawork used during the scenes in the office creates a voyeuristic feel as if there is someone watching them. The fact that they are having an affair, combined with the shaky camera builds a sense of secrecy that is about to be broken.
The film uses intersexual references to good effect. The music video style is used to appeal to a wider audience and to give a different perspective. The hyper reality that is created is one of the postmodern features of the film.
The video game effect represents how life is like a game and has no deep meaning, and is used to reflect the lives of the audience.
Camerawork and editing -The camerawork is synced with the pace of the narration. The directors have used multiple of cinematic techniques like animation, video, black and white, jump cuts, slow motion, rapid and sometimes collisive montage, Lola running in one direction dissolving into Lola running in another direction which breaks the 180 degree rule.
Hyper Real - The mouth of the evil creature on the clock opens up, and the camera zooms in on to it, this allows the audience to get stuck in the world where people can play with time. It also tells the audience that this might be caused by people’s greed in succeeding and however as the audience was not really told where her powers came from the audience can assume that has a contact with the devil from the introduction of the film. Suddenly people start to enter the frame and stop-action is used to speed up their movements, their colours are muted. Each person shows seems to be anonymous as the camera pans to add the fast-paced action. Suddenly the fast moving anonymous character slow down and the audience’s attention is led to the centre of the frame where a women is not moving and is staring at the camera.
Symbolism- In the cartoon section the web symbolises that Lola is like prey which has been stick in a web and cannot escape the conflicts that she has been faced and the only way to escape the wed is to fight it. The distorted clocks in the mouth of the evil creature emphasize her need to rush and get the money. The colour green is used because it connotations of money and evil which justifies the clock’s features in the beginning.
