Run Lola Run

Buy This Item Run Lola Run by Sony Pictures  Available from Amazon  $8.49  on 11-25-2008     It's difficult to create a film that's fast paced, exciting, and aesthetically appealing without diluting its dialogue. <I>Run Lola Run</I>, directed and written by Tom Tykwer, is an enchanting balance of pace and narrative, creating a universal parable that leaps over cultural barriers. This is the story of young Lola (Franka Potente) and her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu). In the space of 20 minutes, they must come up with 100,000 deutsche marks to pay back a seedy gangster, who will be less than forgiving when he finds out that Manni incompetently lost his cash to an opportunistic vagrant. Lola, confronted with one obstacle after another, rides an emotional roller coaster in her high-speed efforts to help the hapless Manni--attempting to extract the cash first from her double-dealing father (appropriately a bank manager), and then by any means necessary. From this point nothing goes right for either protagonist, but just when you think you've figured out the movie, the director introduces a series of brilliant existential twists that boggle the mind. Tykwer uses rapid camera movements and innovative pauses to explore the theme of cause and effect. Accompanied by a pulse-pounding soundtrack, we follow Lola through every turn and every heartbreak as she and Manni rush forward on a collision course with fate. There were a variety of original and intelligent films released in 1999, but perhaps none were as witty and clever as this little gem--one of the best foreign films of the year. <I>--Jeremy Storey</I> Reader Reviews I recently saw this film again as part of a back-to-back, theatrical double feature with Smiley Face (an experience which raises the question, what if Lola was "baked out of her mind" while on her race against time). Run Lola Run (Lola rennt) is a 1998 German film by director Tom Tykwer, starring Berlin actress Franka Potente (Blow; The Bourne Identity) in the title role. (Potente was cast as the lead after meeting Tykwer, in a café. The two subsequently dated.) The film tells the story of punk-femme-hipster-"cuckoo's egg," Lola and her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), who is trying to prove his loyalty to a sleazy gang boss by delivering a bag containing 100,000 Deutsche marks to his boss Ronnie, when everything goes wrong when Manni loses the bag on the metro, and it disappears with a bum. If Manni fails to deliver the money by 12 noon, he will be killed. After Lola promises to get him the 100,000 Mark within twenty minutes, using the "reset button technique," the film follows three alternative dénouements or scenarios (an innovative technique sometimes used by Polish director Krzysztof Kieaelowski) involving Lola running through the streets of Berlin against a pounding techno soundtrack. Along the way, out of breath, she encounters one obstacle after another. Run, Lola, run!!! The three alternate realities bring a brilliant metaphysical or existential quality to the fast-paced thriller. I recommend the Run Lola Run-Smiley Face Double feature, which together reveal the power of life, love and the munchies. G. Merritt

Run Lola Run Available from Amazon Price: $8.49 Updated on 11-25-2008.

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