January 03, 2007
Lola rennt
Just caught up with the 1998 German film Run Lola Run or Lola rennt in the original. It's a wonderfully inventive, fast-paced comedy-thriller that lasts only about 75 minutes.
The situation is this: a very resourceful young woman named Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 deutschmarks in order to save her boyfriend Manni from the mob bosses. Manni had the misfortune to leave the money on a subway train where it was found by a homeless man. During Lola's frantic efforts to obtain the money, she encounters various people with whom she interacts very briefly; a woman pushing a baby stroller, a man almost hits her with his car, etc. The fun of the movie is that we get to see the events three times, each time some little detail is altered at the start of her run, which in turn cascades through the events leading to very different outcomes.
The director Tom Tykwer has lots of fun with inventive editing effects, animation, and even split screen action (this was years before 24, remember). At key moments he even pauses the action for a few seconds to give a quick 5-second montage of the consequences of the actions for the very minor characters.
Don't let the German dialog and subtitles scare you away; once the exposition is over, there is very little dialog. Although I greatly enjoyed the scene where Lola enters a casino and asks the cashier how it works. "You pay for chips and then you gamble them away," replies the cashier.
