Lola Runs (1998)

Directed by: Tom Tykwer | 85 minutes | action, thriller, comedy, adventure, fantasy | Actors: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Armin Rohde, Joachim Krol, Nina Petri, Heino Ferch, Suzanne von Borsody, Lars Rudolph, Ludger Pistor, Sebastian Schipper

From the opening credits it’s clear: ‘Lola rennt’ is an original, exciting viewing experience. In cartoonish style, the names of the creators and players are passed and we are introduced to the character Lola. Fire red hair and constantly running.

‘Lola rennt’ is a film that consists of three parts, each a twenty-minute story, but each time a different variant. Under the guise of ‘what if…’, the viewer sees three times which interventions in between have their influence on the final scene. And that provides an exciting viewing experience.

Because the story is thrown into the mixer three times and the viewer is presented with an overwhelming film cocktail three times, it is not important that the whole has little depth. Precisely because it is wafer thin, ‘Lola Rennt’ has become a lightning-fast video clip. Complete with music perfectly attuned to the energetic camera work (with parts spoken and sung by lead actress Franka Potente herself). But a video clip like you’ve never seen before.

It is therefore all the more clever that child prodigy Tykwer still keeps an eye for detail with all the speed and editing violence. In the three stories you always get a glimpse into the future of the different characters that Lola encounters while running. In a flash of a few seconds you can see what kind of influence Lola has on passers-by. Even though these cans are not always rosy, these flash forwards and the recurring flashbacks do provide some sort of anchor point in the film, making it a coherent whole.

The eye for detail goes much further in this film. For example, the color red of Lola’s hair is reflected in important, recurring elements in the film. Lola’s phone, the traffic light, the ambulance and the various love scenes are colored red. The number twenty also plays a major role: Lola and her boyfriend are in their twenties, she always has twenty minutes, plays on twenty black during roulette and carries 99.20 Deutsche Marken for that. This roulette information also appears at the beginning of the triptych: you hear the roulette ball rolling and the words ‘rien ne va plus’. Then the ball falls and the run begins. After seeing ‘Lola rennt’ you will immediately fall in love with this overwhelming film, which shows that Europe is digging much deeper than in America.