Run Lola Pair

8/3/2019 Run Lola Pair

1/15


2/15

"Nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel.""After the game is before the game." Or: When one game

ends, another is about to begin.

Hardly a pause, and even the pause is preparation for the next game. What dominates, whether

before or after the game, is the game itself.

So whatever else this epigraph might mean), it reminds us that while watching Run Lola Run we

should never forget that we are in a sense watching a game. Or in several senses.

2nd quote- We shall not cease from exploration and the end of our exploring will be to arrive

where we started and know the place for the first time.

This gives us a hint on what the story will be about. It emphasizes that exploring life is never

ending and you will always start a new one after youve finished.


3/15

A clock's pendulum swings ominously

back and forth across the screen.

The back and forth motion

represents Lolas ability to go back

and forth in time.

Then it swings across the frame another

5-6 timesalmost with an hypnotic

rhythm. Then it stops abruptly. We can see

the amulet has an ugly face, mouth wide

in a bizarre smile, what seems to be a

snake coming out of its mouth. Camera

moves in, and then upto show theamulet is really a pendulum of a clock.


4/15

Games, like films, are

usually time-bound, and

Lola (Franka Potente) is a

most time-bound

character.

Games can also be

played again; if you lose

one game, you can

always try again. So if

film is like a game, then

why not give Lola a

second chance to win, ora third? "The space-time

continuum is unhinged.


5/15

The mouth of the evil entity

on the clock opens and the

camera zooms in on that.

This is allowing the audience

to get sucked in a world wherepeople can play with time.

It also tells us that this might

be caused by peoples greed in

succeeding and although

were not really told where

her power came from, fromthe intro we can assume that

she had a contract with the

devil.


6/15

Suddenly we see people packing the screen, and stop-action used to speed up their movements. Their colors are muted. Each person seems

anonymous. The camera pans to add to the fast-paced action.Suddenly the fast-moving anonymous figures slow down, and we pick up one woman in the center of the frame who is not moving. She

stares at the camera. Why do we believe anything at all? Back to the fast-moving crowd, and then it slows and again we pick out a specific

person, dressed in vibrant red: Countless questions in search of an answer. An answer that will give rise to a new question. The fast-paced

action resumes and then slows down again as we pick out a third person, a middle-aged man, as the voice-over continues: And the next

question will rise to the next question and so on.

The fast-paced action resumes, then slows, as we see a fourth persona mother holding her 2-year-old. The voice-over: But in the end

isnt it always the same question? The fast paced action resumes. The voice-over: And always the same answer? Fast-paced action

resumes, then slows, all this time the fast-paced and pounding music under the images. We pick out a fifth persona man dressed in a

leather jacket and wearing a capa police officer? A chauffeur? The voice-over: The ball is round. The game lasts 90 minutes. Thats a fact. As before the person looks into the camera. This time the character speaks. Everything else is pure

theory. Here we go.


7/15

The film includes the animatedsummary of Lolas run. It

represents her struggles and her

power as well.


8/15

The repetition of her going intothe monster cave encountering

different obstacles pretty much

summarizes the story.


9/15

The web inside the cartoon worldtells us that Lola is like a prey that

has been stuck in a web being

unable to escape the conflicts that

she was facing and the only way to

be free is to try to fight it.

The distorted clocks in the mouth ofthe evil creature emphasizes her

need to rush and get the money. It

is green because it connotes money

and evil which justifies the clocks

features in the beginning.


10/15

The cast of characters were

introduced by flashing their

pictures that looked like mug

shots.

This is to tell us that they are all

guilty of being involved in this

game of life.


11/15

The camerawork synchs with the pace of the narrative

They 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

It breaks the 180 degree rule


12/15

Does Lola possess the power to affect the heart

rate of the characters in her game? Certainly from

run to run she has gained in knowledge and power.

She climbs into the back of the ambulance and

there on the stretcher is Schuster having his heartmassaged, but to no effect. "What do you want

here?" the attendant asks, and Lola says, "I belong

to him" ("Ich gehr zu ihm"). Then she holds his

hand and brings his heart beat back to normal.

Lola enters the casino and twice wills the ball (the

second time with the help of her scream) to land

on 20. Her scream breaks glasses

She can re-do the scenario until she gets it right


13/15

Art/Foreign, Thriller, Action/Adventure

The genre fits perfectly with the Video game theme.

The narrative is really simple. It is just about her

trying to save her boyfriends life by getting themoney in 20 minutes.

This is postmodern because as we all know,

postmodernism rejects the idea of having grand

narratives.

The way Lola has been represented is hyper real.It breaks the stereotype of girls being weak and

helpless.


14/15

For the audience, the experience is a lot like

watching some bizarre combination of a MTV music

video

Tykwer does everything he can to keep the audience

on its toes. The film switches from color to black-and-white and vice versa.

The runaway train approach effectively allows the

audience to empathize with the title character and

experience her life-and-death race against time

Tykwer wraps it in a pleasant pop-art coating that

makes it easy to swallow. He never loses sight of the

fact that his primary goal is to create something thatwill entertain first, and teach second. The end result

is a movie that is, above all else, a whole lot of fun.


15/15

The evocation of a hyperreal culture where simulations precede reality - or in this case, where

reality is so malleable that it can actually be replayed if things go badly, just like a video game.

The emphasis on style over substance, with its impressively consistent use of chromatic coding

of characters and themes, a technical coding (by mixing colour and black and white film with

video) of the context of these events, and a techno soundtrack that perfectly fits the action.

The use ofpastiche and cultural recycling, notably a recycling of the techniques and structure

of computer role-playing games and rock music videos in the context of an action film.

The decline of meta-narratives, signalled right from the start of the film in the prologue where

an omniscient-sounding narrator dismisses all deep metaphysical and moral questions in

exchange for the sheer fun of the game.

There are no wasted shots in this 81-minute film. Its style is fast and kinetic, driven except in

one short scene by a pounding techno soundtrack giving it a real energy, surging mercilessly

forward toward two tentative and one final resolution.

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