IF only!!! is a phrase that we often use in our life. If only i had been born in USA, I would have been a millionaire. IF only i had been....... options are unlimited aren't they? This is the string behind this amazing German movie called Run Lola Run.
Movie is a form of art, a medium of philosophy aptly mixed with an ample dose of entertainment. But the later part always projects up, leaving you with same cliched story. But, once in a while comes a film so original and refreshing that it gives you hope in cinema again despite the countless crap movies that are also produced. "Lola Rennt", is one of them. It proves that movies could be artistic, thoughtful and yet highly entertaining. Every tick of the 81 minutes in "Run Lola Run" is pounding with kinetic energy and adrenaline.
Plot
Like so many crises, it begins with a panicked phone call. Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), a courier for a powerful drug dealer, calls his girlfriend, Lola (Franka Potente), because he has just lost 100,000 deutsche marks that he must deliver to the dealer in 20 minutes. If he doesn't show up with the money, he's knows that he will be killed. He contemplates robbing a grocery store across the street, but Lola begs him not to do it. Just wait, she tells him, because she will somehow get 100,000 marks and meet him in 20 minutes. And there begins the strange, odyssey of this fast-paced movie. Director Tykwer sets up his premise in the first 15 minutes, and for the next hour he shows Lola's 20-minute journey to save Manni three times. Each time, there are small, subtle changes that make the outcomes completely different.
Analysis
Tom Tykwer's direction is relentless, creative and completely absorbing. He takes the kind of music video techniques that have become the tiresome hallmark of American action movies and reinvents them, continually cutting every scene with different camera angles. Cinematographer, Frank Griebe, filmed "Run Lola Run" in a visually arresting manner that suits its hyperactive character. The film is scored with pounding techno music, which makes it even more upbeat and exciting. Franka Potente, surely makes a huge impact in this movie. Good acting and great running by her. Chaos theory in particular seems to be the main concern here. It shows that every little decision and event in life has repercussions upon everything. Hence, the film's gallery of colorful characters have different fates depending of what Lola does in these 20 minutes.
We could take the central image of a young girl racing through the busy streets of Berlin as a symbol of our panicked, rushed modern lives, and the movie shows with great clarity just how monumental is our every move.
Watch "Run Lola Run", because this film is more alive in any given minute than many movies are in their whole length.
Trailer
