Run Lola Run (1998)

After a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks.

Director:

Tom Tykwer

Writer:

Tom Tykwer (screenplay)

Stars:

Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 28 wins & 19 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Franka Potente	...	Lola
Moritz Bleibtreu	...	Manni
Herbert Knaup	...	Vater
Nina Petri	...	Jutta Hansen
Armin Rohde	...	Herr Schuster
Joachim Król	...	Norbert von Au
Ludger Pistor	...	Herr Meier
Suzanne von Borsody	...	Frau Jäger
Sebastian Schipper	...	Mike
Julia Lindig	...	Doris
Lars Rudolph	...	Herr Kruse
Heino Ferch	...	Ronnie

Storyline

Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. Lola has 20 min to raise this amount and meet Manni. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run.

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Plot Keywords:

running | race against the clock | repeated event | money | fate | 

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Taglines:

(English translation: The difference between life or death can be decided in a split second.)

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Germany

Language:

German English Japanese

Release Date:

18 June 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lola Runs

Filming Locations:

Mitte, Berlin, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

DEM 3,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$123,643, 18 June 1999, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$7,267,585

Company Credits

Production Co:

X-Filme Creative Pool, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), Arte

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It took nearly five weeks to persuade a supermarket in Berlin to allow them to shoot the robbery sequence.

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Goofs

When Lola is almost hit by the white delivery truck and she stands staring towards the casino, the birthmark near her lips is on the left side of her face. In all other shots it is on the right side of her face.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[subtitled version]
Narrator: Man... probably the most mysterious species on our planet. A mystery of unanswered questions. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? How do we know what we think we know? Why do we believe anything at all? Countless questions in search of an answer... an answer that will give rise to a new question... and the next answer will give rise to the next question and so on. But, in the end, isn't it always the same question? And always the same answer?

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Crazy Credits

The end credits run backwards, from top to bottom.

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Connections

Featured in Renegade Cut: Run Lola Run (2016)

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Soundtracks

The Unanswered Question
Performed by The Orchestra of St. Luke's
Conducted by John Adams
Music by Charles Ives

User Reviews

Technically Stunning

Tom Tykwer has truly proven himself as the filmmaker to watch. The little known German director has produced a modern-day masterpiece; a dazzling technical film about how life consists of the decisions we make.

Lola (Franka Potente) receives a phone call from her boyfriend, Manni. (Moritz Bleibtreii) Manni accidentally leaves a bag carrying $100 000 on a train, which is picked up by a homeless man. This leaves Manni in quite a predicament. He is supposed to deliver the money to a gangster by noon, if he fails, then he is likely to be killed. Lola has twenty- minutes to save his boyfriend. Twenty short minutes to somehow find the money and get it to him.

Run Lola Run is a film you expect to see at a Independent film festival, or in a Professor's office at a film school. In no way do I mean that in a negative way, I mean not to intend that the film is of a lower standard with lower production values, rather that the film is a beautifully mastered technical film that uses every filmmaking technique in the book. It is refreshing to see a film like this in the midst of the commercialised, dry-cut, 'traditional' filmmaking that we see on the silver screen so regularly.

As stated before, the film attempts to use a wide range of filmmaking techniques to help get the director's meaning and vision across to the audience. Some of these include speed-up, instant replay, black and white, and even animation in some parts.

It may sound strange, but the film is twenty-minutes long. Well, not really, but it is in context. Tykwer focuses on the twenty-minutes that Lola has, and shows that twenty-minutes three times over, each time with small differences will affect the outcome of the characters. The danger with this kind of technique is that it can threaten to be repetitive. However, the new additions added by Tykwer are very clever and link in perfectly, which will have you gasping for more.

Tykwer wrote and directed this film, and while doing this, he never lost sight of his meaning. His meaning that he is trying to express is that life consists of the decisions we make. While watching the film, this becomes increasingly evident. He also likes to emphasise that time is against Lola during the film. This can be seen when a young woman walks past and Lola asks her for the time, the next shot shows a much older woman answering her question, hence showing the importance of time.

Franka Potente gave a good performance as Lola. Yet, it is hard to say that she was fantastic, because it is a role that requires a great deal of physical acting and we didn't get to know a lot about Lola, hence the film wasn't overly-focusing on her issues, rather her boyfriend's problem. The real standout performance from my point of view came from Moritz Bleibtreii. He actually took on a quite challenging role and pulls it off successfully. He achieves his objective of getting the audience to feel sympathy for the position that he is in.

Run Lola Run is without a doubt, one of the best technical films ever made. A profound, exciting, new age masterpiece that has well and truly left its mark on the film industry.

Five out of Five.