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"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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The film includes the animatedsummary of Lolas run. It
represents her struggles and her
power as well.
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The repetition of her going intothe monster cave encountering
different obstacles pretty much
summarizes the story.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.