Film: Run Lola Run
Director: Tom Tykwer
Year: 1998
Run Lola, Run is a film dead set on using its style to tell the story. Editing plays a big part in this. Editing can be done in many ways to sway the audience into feeling certain things for the film or the characters or even to effect time. Run Lola, Run has a unique setting in which the story takes place in 20 minutes real time but is stretched to the length of the film which is 81 minutes. This is opposite to what most typical Hollywood films do, which is take a long period of time (sometimes even decades) and squash it down to a 2 hour or so film. This film stretches out time, but at the same time moves so fast giving the film and its time and place quite a strong juxtaposition. One way in which is does this is by veering off from the main plot line and focussing on side characters, some of which we never meet. It is not done for us to get to know these side characters, more to help the film’s point about how everyone’s’ actions and choices change the lives of people around us good – but I will discuss that later on.
Another way in which Run Lola, Run does this is by having a non-traditional three part narrative, it tells the same story three times with small changes every time depending on Lola’s choices and consequences. The way in which this narrative is done is also shown through strong “gaming” references, which in the 90’s, the time the film was made, was a fast growing trend. The editing was also certainly ‘video game’like. When the first of the three parts ended it played out like you were restarting the “level” of the game. Another gaming aspect could be seen when Lola was running towards Manni and it had a split screen to show us what both characters were doing at the same time like if you were playing a two player game. The red screen when Lola or Manni died at the end of each ‘try’ was done exactly like in games when you die and the screen fills with blood. All of these techniques could be seen as techniques that would jolt the audience out of the film and make you realise and aware you are watching a film. It can be argued though, that due to the target audience of both the film and video games this could have the opposite effect and it draws the audience in further, engaging them with the film and make them feel like they are in fact playing a video game. True!
This gaming structure in Run Lola, Run is where I thought the film really got interesting and really delved the underlying narrative (through style) into deep life questions. It has been argued that this use of hypermedia gave the film a ‘shallow MTV aesthetic’, as explained in the O’Sickey (2002) reading, but I completely disagree. As also stated in the reading, Tykwer describes this use of hypermedia as the film’s representation into the arena of interactive cinema “where the audience can be the player rather than be played”. In a time when gaming was just taking off and it was all the rage, why wouldn’t this type of film be something that audiences would want to see? As I started saying before, I felt this type of filming, although some saw it as shallow, much deeper than what was just on the surface. Looking beyond the “plot” I found it had a strong powerful message behind it… What could you achieve if you could restart your day with the knowledge of the time before? How different would life be if, like a game you could restart if you died or made a mistake? And if you did have the power to do this, by restarting your day, or your life, how would that affect others around you, even strangers?
I felt these types of questions were what Tykwer was trying to represent a few times throughout the film. For example, when Lola was running and she would bump into a stranger on the street, each “life” or “day” she re-did those same characters’ lives changed a huge amount and you saw this through photo snapshots of the characters’ lives. A once poor lady was now a fancy billionaire’s wife (or so it looked).
The 3rd and final “life” is when Lola does succeed and gets Manni the money, but Manni succeeds and gets the money as well. They are now left with money for themselves but if you look back at the accidents that happened that 3rd and final time, more people were injured or killed in this life than the previous two. This actually, – in a way, reminded me of the movie Butterfly Effect, where the main character was getting to restart parts of his life to save a girl he loved. But every time he fixed her life someone else close to him or to her either died or was injured. Is messing with fate messing up the whole system? This was another question that came into my head during Run Lola, Run due to the stylistic techniques Tykwer chose to use.
Another strong aspect of the film, and one that was again conveyed through style rather than content in the film was gender roles. I read an article written about Run Lola Run that had a lot to say about that as well and although I did notice it slightly in the film, I didn’t really grasp the full amount of it until I read the O’Sickey (2002) reading and then went back to the film and thought about it. O’Sickey (2002) argues that for Lola to be a completely believable heroine it has to be in a virtual reality. Even though I definitely don’t think this is the general case in movies or reality (there are a lot of strong independent female heroines in films such as Kill Bill and Thelma and Louise). But in Run Lola, Run I tend to agree. How the film ended with Lola succeeding (but not showing that she did to Manni) to me, her having to hide the fact that she succeeded to make him happy does not show a strong heroine at all.
Another part of the O’Sickey (2002) reading I didn’t agree with was the fact that she said that a lot of the techniques used in the film distract the film from being ‘realism’. Here is when I am going to sound slightly contradicting so I hope I make some sort of sense… I know that the techniques used in the film are used to shock people out of their absorption from watching to make them know they are watching the film and think about the film, but as a change of pace I actually didn’t feel the typical way you’re supposed to feel when watching this type of film. To me, the switch from animation to film does the opposite than usual, it didn’t make me aware I was watching a film, it actually further engaged me with it and drew me in closer. It was like I was playing a video game. By using gaming techniques I actually felt more engaged and immersed within the film and in a way it was perfect for that typical target audience who love gaming in the real world. To me realism changes as technology and culture change, something begin realistic doesn’t necessarily mean flesh and blood anymore – today’s society live through gaming and TV and therefore to the audience that kind of life is realism. I know I’m about to contradict myself here, but at the same time I understand what the reader means: dying and coming back to life is not realistic, but I just think for its time that the film was made people getting drawn into that life would not have been hard to do .
References
O’Sickey, Ingeborg Majer. (2002). “Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets (Or Does She?): Time and Desire in Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run”, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, April 2002, Vol.19(2), p.123-131.
Movie poster source: movieposter.com
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