Product: Run, Lola, Run [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 4.0
The Double Nature of Run Lola Run
In Tom Tykwer's film, Run Lola Run, we are confronted with a main character that struggles to find her place between the two distinctions of feminist and feminine. The film, which is segmented into three different scenarios, starts off by portraying Lola as a female hero. She breaks the stereotypes, and does not reflect the Hollywood ideal of a female heroine. Her clothes are ragged, her hair is a mess, and worst of all, she does not glisten but actually sweats. The Hollywood heroine, on the other hand, would be wearing high heels in all of the fight scenes, never break a sweat, and always be sexy and perfectly put together. The cinematic gaze, as refered to by film theorist, John Berger, depicts her as a super human action hero. She can see the future, run far distances in almost no time, and she has the power to change certain events in time. The cinematic gaze is usually used to objectify women. In Run Lola Run, however, it is used to set Lola apart, and show what a woman can be capable of. Tykwer's progressive feminist representation of Lola falls prey to stereotypical femininity in the last scenario. Mani, her small time crook of a boyfriend, whose life she is trying to save, comes through in the clutch. He does not even think of what Lola has gone through in an attempt to help him. Tywker ends the film with the man saving the day. This strays from his critique of "the Hollywood heroine" that had been a blaring message in the first two scenarios. All of Lola's efforts have been trivialized and she is shown as powerless and speechless. Mani acts as if he had the entire situation under control the entire time, and reduces Lola's role to that of merely a supportive and concerned girlfriend. The film ends with a segmented shot of Mani and Lola's interlocked hands. This is a perfect example of Foucault's idea of the micro physics of power. Ingeborg Majer O'Sickey includes this idea in her discussion of Barbie Magazine. It refers to the manner in which a body can be fragmented into discrete parts in order to display power. In this last scene in Run Lola Run, the fragmented shot of their clasped hands, turns Lola into a powerless and submissive girlfriend. She no longer is able to be defined independently. Mani does not need her, he simply has her a a trophy to be displayed. This movie shows us that as far as we think we are progressing as an equal society whith women who are respected, we have a lot of work to do.