Product: Run, Lola, Run [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 5.0
A film you can dissect and see how all the elements work
You must see this film with a loud sound system.Run Lola Run is high impact on every level. The plot is easy enough: Lola's motor scooter is stolen and as a result she is unable to pick up her boyfriend Manni for an important criminal gem/money exchange. Manni, forced to walk, and take the train, left the money on the train and a bum ran off with it. Lola has 20 minutes to raise 100,000 DM and save her boyfriend Manni from being killed by a crime boss.Three scenarios play out in the film. Two end in disaster, one ends in triumph. The music and thumping of the tech music soundtrack serves as the score, the beating of the main character's heart, and the tick-tock of a 20-minute window of time slipping away. The visuals are a marvel, making use of filmed scenes as well as scenes shot on video and later transfered to film for a muted look. Every scene with Lola or Manni is film while any scene without them is shot on video.Pay attention to where the color RED appears (phone, hair, ambulance, and even the color of the bedroom scenes that separate the three scenarios). Try to see where the old blind lady (God)with black sunglasses appears in each scenario and what purpose she serves. Note the occasions when glass breaks. See how the fates of peripheral but essential characters in the film change from scenario to scenario in these sudden moments of flash frames. Lola's father is a sinner, a bank executive who is cheating on his wife, Lola's mother, with a woman with fading reddish-brown hair. Red, failure, mortality. He denies Lola any help and reveals to her the affair without remorse. My favorite use of visuals is comparing a round clock (a symbol for our mortality) with the round roulette wheel in a casino (God's clock...where miracles happen). At one point Lola runs across a huge open courtyard with a fountain and it looks exactly like a roulette wheel and the betting grid. Lola is killed in one scenario, watches Manni get killed in another, but succeeds in the third because she "surrenders" to the almighty while praying and running with her eyes closed through busy Berlin. Lola is "guided to a casino, hence the roulette wheel. Of course, Lola's hair is red, but she does not bet on Red. Red is blood, red is failure, red is our mortality. When she gambles her only money she bets on the number 20 (minutes)and on the color BLACK, the color of the Nuns, the black sunglasses, and hence the intervention of God. She wins on that number twice in a row, a miracle. She walks away with over 100,000 dm.Lola is put into service for the almighty when she gets into an ambulance (red ambulance) and holds hands with a heart-attack victim (a guard from her father's bank.) Her presence gives him the will to live and his heartbeat, a thumping music of a different sort, returns to normal.Manni is also "saved" when the blind old lady with black sunglasses tells him to "wait" and sure enough Manni sees the person who stole the money from him. While Manni is chasing the bum he causes an unintentional accident in the street that hurts (punishes) Lola's rotten father as well as killing the thief who stole her motor scooter at the beginning of the film.God's wrath. Manni "surrenders" as well, giving his gun to the bum in exchange for the money.Manni, now gunless and useless as a criminal, gives the money to the crime boss, and meets Lola, who is waiting for him with a bag on money. She now realizes that not only is Manni saved from the fate of the crime boss, but she and Manni can both start an honest life together and not resort to crime seeing as how she has over 100,000 dm in a bag that is all theirs. The film ends with Lola smiling in joy as Manni simply asks: "What's in the bag?"THis is a masterpiece of fate, divine intervention, trying to take matters into our own hands, punishing the wicked and saving sinners. Yes, this movie is heavy on spirit and don't believe anyone who says otherwise. The theme of all the elements being used to facilitate either a disaster or salvation is so comprehensive and well-executed that even the the most angry-at-God person or atheist will be knocked down by how good this film is. Don't let foreign films scare you away. This is even a good film for a youth group for teens at a church! Yes it's in German and yes you will have to read subtitles. FYI, this review I just wrote has about as many words as all of the dialogue of the film so there...you see? You can do it. Miracles happen even to the viewers of Run Lola Run!JIM MACAYEAL