Plot
A young woman in Germany has twenty minutes to find and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks to her boyfriend before he robs a supermarket.
Release Year: 1998
Rating: 7.9/10 (97,835 voted)
Critic's Score: 77/100
Director:
Tom Tykwer
Stars: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup
Storyline Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manny. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. Lola has 20 min to raise this amount and meet Manny. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run.
Cast: Franka Potente
-
Lola
Moritz Bleibtreu
-
Manni
Herbert Knaup
-
Vater
Nina Petri
-
Jutta Hansen
Armin Rohde
-
Herr Schuster
Joachim Król
-
Norbert von Au
Ludger Pistor
-
Herr Meier
Suzanne von Borsody
-
Frau Jäger
Sebastian Schipper
-
Mike
Julia Lindig
-
Doris
Lars Rudolph
-
Herr Kruse
Andreas Petri
-
Sanitäter
Klaus Müller
-
Croupier
Utz Krause
-
Casino-Manager
Beate Finckh
-
Casino-Kassiererin
Taglines:
Es sind die kurzen Augenblicke, die über Leben oder Tod entscheiden können...
Opening Weekend: $123,643
(USA)
(18 June 1999)
(12 Screens)
Gross: $7,267,585
(USA)
Technical Specs
Runtime:|
USA:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
The blind woman that Manni borrows the phone card from is Moritz Bleibtreu's mother, Monica Bleibtreu.
Goofs:
Continuity:
Lola's bra strap when she enters her father's office in Part II.
Quotes:
[first lines]
[subtitled version]
Narrator:
Man... probably the most mysterious species on our planet. A mystery of unanswered questions. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? How do we know what we think we know? Why do we believe anything at all? Countless questions in search of an answer... an answer that will give rise to a new question... and the next answer will give rise to the next question and so on. But, in the end, isn't it always the same question? And always the same answer?
User Review
Technically Stunning
Rating: 10/10
Tom Tykwer has truly proven himself as the filmmaker to watch. The little
known German director has produced a modern-day masterpiece; a dazzling
technical film about how life consists of the decisions we
make.
Lola (Franka Potente) receives a phone call from her boyfriend, Manni.
(Moritz Bleibtreii) Manni accidentally leaves a bag carrying $100 000 on a
train, which is picked up by a homeless man. This leaves Manni in quite a
predicament. He is supposed to deliver the money to a gangster by noon, if
he fails, then he is likely to be killed. Lola has twenty- minutes to save
his boyfriend. Twenty short minutes to somehow find the money and get it
to
him.
Run Lola Run is a film you expect to see at a Independent film festival,
or
in a Professor's office at a film school. In no way do I mean that in a
negative way, I mean not to intend that the film is of a lower standard
with
lower production values, rather that the film is a beautifully mastered
technical film that uses every filmmaking technique in the book. It is
refreshing to see a film like this in the midst of the commercialised,
dry-cut, 'traditional' filmmaking that we see on the silver screen so
regularly.
As stated before, the film attempts to use a wide range of filmmaking
techniques to help get the director's meaning and vision across to the
audience. Some of these include speed-up, instant replay, black and white,
and even animation in some parts.
It may sound strange, but the film is twenty-minutes long. Well, not
really,
but it is in context. Tykwer focuses on the twenty-minutes that Lola has,
and shows that twenty-minutes three times over, each time with small
differences will affect the outcome of the characters. The danger with
this
kind of technique is that it can threaten to be repetitive. However, the
new
additions added by Tykwer are very clever and link in perfectly, which
will
have you gasping for more.
Tykwer wrote and directed this film, and while doing this, he never lost
sight of his meaning. His meaning that he is trying to express is that
life
consists of the decisions we make. While watching the film, this becomes
increasingly evident. He also likes to emphasise that time is against Lola
during the film. This can be seen when a young woman walks past and Lola
asks her for the time, the next shot shows a much older woman answering
her
question, hence showing the importance of time.
Franka Potente gave a good performance as Lola. Yet, it is hard to say
that
she was fantastic, because it is a role that requires a great deal of
physical acting and we didn't get to know a lot about Lola, hence the film
wasn't overly-focusing on her issues, rather her boyfriend's problem. The
real standout performance from my point of view came from Moritz
Bleibtreii.
He actually took on a quite challenging role and pulls it off
successfully.
He achieves his objective of getting the audience to feel sympathy for the
position that he is in.
Run Lola Run is without a doubt, one of the best technical films ever
made.
A profound, exciting, new age masterpiece that has well and truly left its
mark on the film industry.
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