Run Lola RunRun 2

Narrative:The 2nd run begins shortly after Lola is shot during the first run, hence why the narrative is perceived as a video game. The main character dies and then is given her 2nd life, out of 3, to complete the game properly. All the things she does in the 2nd run are slightly different, compared to the first:

1st Run 2nd Run

Animated opening: Lola runs faster because the dog and punk scares her.

Animation: The punk tripped her up and she feel down the stairs.

She causes her fathers friend’s car accident. She still causes a car accident.

She walks in on her father and his mistress. She walks in on them arguing, as his mistress pregnant by someone else.

Her father doesn’t give her any money. He tells he is leaving the family and that he is not her father.

He refuses to give her any money and holds him at gunpoint till he does.

She sees Manni, just as he robs the supermarket and helps him.

She escapes from police as they mistake her for someone else.

As they are fleeing from police, Lola is shot dead.

She is about to run to Manni, but he is run down by an ambulance.

Narrative:The soundtrack consists of upbeat, German techno style music, which adds to the intensity of the film. The tension from the build-up of the music reflects the pace of her running. Jim Bizzocchi argues that Run Lola Run is a ‘remediation’ of a rock music video, within the context of a feature film, due to its reliance on music and its the bold use of cinematic craft.

Jenkins also argues that Manni's call to Lola, Lola's decision to act, and to seek help from her father resembles a 'cinematic‘ - the filmed prologue to an interactive game. It outlines the rules of the "game", the goal is to obtain 100,000 marks and the time limit is 20 minutes.This nerve-wracking game is made even more difficult with lots of obstacles and interruptions , which must be manoeuvred and overcomewithout a loss of speed and progress. For example, when she nearly is run down by her fathers friend, the man on the bicycle and the people she bumps into.

Representation:Lola is represented as being committed to her boyfriend, because in the first run she turns to her dad for the money, which could affect her relationship with her father, although he doesn’t give her the money and instead finds out that he is not her father, which affects their relationship anyway. In the second run she takes the law into her own hands and holds her dad at gunpoint, which means she is willing to go to prison for Manni.

Audience:The type of audience who would watch this type of film would be majority males between the age of 24 and 34, because there is action in the film and it keeps the viewers thinking and wanting to know what happens next. Alternatively, there may also be female views, who make like this film for its romance side, they might like to watch the romance between Lola and Mani.

Genre:

Run Lola Run is a film of multiple genres, due to the 3 different alternatives of Loa’s runs. The prominent genre is crime, as within each run, they commit a crime – especially in run 2, as she holds her father at gunpoint to steal the money.Another genre is drama as she has 20 minutes to run from her home to the spiral bar where Manni is, along with a 100,000 marks or her boyfriend dies. The time is against her and she has to, literally, ‘outrun’ it.

Codes & Conventions:• The colour Red: Red is very significant throughout the film. Lola’s hair is bright red, likening her to Japanese Anime – a style of drawing to make her seem unrealistic. This enforces Baudrillard's theory that we live in a ‘hyper reality.’Also at the end of this run (as well as the first), the screen fades into a red background and fades back into a close-up of Lola and Manni lying together, still on a red filter. Red connotes death and danger and before the screen fades red, either Lola or Manni dies.

Time:Time is very important within the film, portrayed through several images of clocks and the sound of a ticking clock. It presents how tight for time Lola is, as she must reach Manni at a certain time to stop him from getting g money through illegal means.The Quick cutting, frantic action and the driving techno beat of the music contribute to the nonstop pace; evoking the adrenaline-packed urgency of an interactive video action game.

PostmodernismThis film is similar to a video game, as in a video game, if you don’t do it right the first time the level is restarted and you can try it again. The second run is her 2 attempted at the game, it goes better than the first run because she manages to get money this time,, which was her first run failure, however still ends badly. This is also an example of hyper reality, as this wouldn’t happen in real life.

The use of Pastiche as it is a recycle of the Video game ‘Tomb Radar’, therefore in the postmodern sense it is a copy of the video game, what Baudrillard would call simulacra.

Red is the dominant colour, perhaps suggesting blood, death or fate. Lola's dyed hair is an extravagantly bright red; the telephone she gets Manni's plea for help at the start of the film is red; there is also a red ambulance containing a paramedic in a red coverall, a red bag full of money stolen from a grocery store, a bicycle thief wearing a red soccer shirt with "Gott" written in Gothic letters on the front, along with assorted red signs (Bolle market sign), cars, and other objects. Red is the colour of decision and fate, of the gods of the film, of life and death.

Black and white are constantly contrasted in the film, in the clothes of a group of nuns, in a pair of cars that crash into each other in each segment, in the dress of the employees at Lola father's bank, and even in the row of parked cars in the final scenes of each of the three games. The gangster's car at the end of the film is black, as their white car (the only one clearly seen in the film) has been smashed up in an accident. Perhaps Tykwer is playing with the old distinction between good and evil as symbolized by a chromatic dialectic between white and black.