Written by: JBR
"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." - T.S. Eliot
At the age of 33, German director Tom Tykwer directed 'Run Lola Run.' The film won appreciation from everyone at the 1998 at Toronto Film Festival. It was hailed as the forerunner for films of the future.
Life is made up of incidents. We create some, but most times, we end up assailed by them. Whatever be the case, we cannot change what has already happened. If we lose a video game, we can always start again from zero. This cannot happen in real life. There is no rewind in real life. If there is...
When Lola is at home, she gets a phone call. On the road corner is her lover Manni. He is works for a local gangster. According to the gangster's instructions, he has to hand over some stuff and collect 100,000 marks. Lola is supposed to pick her up on her bike. When Lola goes shopping, someone steals her bike, so she is unable to pick him up. Manni gets on to a subway train. On seeing a cop, he gets unnerved, leaves the money bag in the train itself and flees. Before he can get on to the train again, the train leaves. The money bag ends up in the hands of a beggar in the train.
From a corner telephone booth, Manni calls Lola and tells her if he does not hand over 100,000 marks by 12 º clock, he will be killed. Lola looks at the clock and it is 11.40. There's only 20 minutes and Manni is at the other end of town, so Lola drops the phone and starts running.
Lola first approaches her father for help and asks for 100,000 marks immediately. He is on the phone with his mistress and tells Lola she is not his daughter and chases her away. As Lola runs towards where Manni is, she sees that the deadline has passed. Manni goes to a nearby department store and demands money at gunpoint. Lola helps him. As they try to escape with the money, they are surrounded by the police. Lola throws the money she has in front of the cops. Surprised by this sudden action, a cop's gun fires, and Lola falls to the ground wounded.
As the scene dissolves, the phone rings again. Lola starts running again. The same place, the same street, the same people. Lola goes directly to her father's office. He refuses to her money, so she grabs the 100,000 marks from his office at gunpoint. With the money, she goes to where Manni is. Manni is just getting set to rob the store at gunpoint when he hears Lola's voice. As he approaches her, he is unexpectedly struck by an ambulance.
Now Lola starts to run again. With the money in hand, she gambles at a casino. She gets the money she needs. Manni sees the beggar from the train who has his bag of money. He chases the man and gets back his money bag. Lola comes to where Manni is with her money. That time, Manni gets out of the car after having handed over the money to the gangster. Manni and Lola hold hands and walk away happily together and the film ends on a happy note.
One incident and 3 possibilities! At the beginning of the film, through Manni and Lola's conversation in black and white, we get to know of how he loses the money bag. This lasts about 20 minutes in the film. Lola has 20 minutes time to get the money. From the time Lola starts running till she meets Manni, lasts 20 minutes. The scenes last the same duration as the time frame set in the story line. Lola runs 3 times. That makes 3 x 20, equal to 60 minutes.
To narrate his story Tom Tykwer uses slow motion, fast motion, video camera, stills and animation. Te director shows Lola getting down the staircase of her apartment in cartoon form. Lola bumps into a lady walking with her child in the street. As the lady's face appears on screen, 24 still frames tell her story in about 10 seconds. Each time Lola passes that lady, her story changes. Such changes are shown for the various characters from encounter to encounter as she runs.
The attraction in the film is the music. The techno music that reminds one of the ticking of the clock is a character in itself.
Life is full of uncertainties. One may lose one's life suddenly in a tsunami, or a train accident. Each incident has its element of life and death. The choice of that is not in our hands.
Tom Tykwer's 'Run Lola Run' shows this aspect of this new era in an interesting manner. When Lola is shot by the cop when she throws the money to him, she dies. In the second sequence, when Lola robs her father's office at gunpoint and comes out, the police surround her. Though Lola has the moneybag in her hand, the police do not recognize her as the robber and see her away safely. This one scene is proof that life and death are ridiculous possibilities in this day and age.
The film starts with the quotation by TS Eliot that this article also starts with. Herberger's quote 'After the game is before the game' is also featured at the beginning of the film.
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-31.05.2007
