Product: Run, Lola, Run [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 5.0
"Everything was on time, except for you"
Run Lola Run (called Lola Rennt in its native Germany) is the movie that perhaps best defines the dissafectionist undercurrent present in the final decade of the twentieth century. Set in a stark urban landscape, it proceeds at the same frenetic pace as its protagonist - scarlet-coiffured Lola - as she attempts to save her boyfriend's life. Lola's frenzied desperation is echoed in the beat-driven techno-style score, and through the jerky camera work and rapid shot sequences.Instead of 90 continuous minutes of flowing film, Run Lola Run is split into three scenarios, with widely divergent outcomes. Manni has inadvertently left a bag containing a large amount of money destined for a Berlin Mafia syndicate on the train. He rings his girlfriend, Lola, in a panic, telling her that he needs 100,000 marks in 20 minutes or he's as good as dead. Lola hits the ground running and the three segments follow her quest for fast cash.The movie ponders the age-old question of how one seemingly insignificant action can alter the course of destiny; in this case it is Lola's differing interactions with a boy and his dog on the staircase of her apartment block (shown in a cartoon) at the beginning of each scenario that sets the scene for her subsequent varied modes of action. Director Tom Tykwer lets the camera do the talking, and the sometimes overwhelming barrage of verbosity thrown at the viewer in so many modern films is thankfully absent here.Among the many interesting features of the movie is the use of the flash-forward sequence. Minor characters are given depth by the use of a fast-paced photo montage showing what the future holds for them. It is touches like this, which make this film a cinematic masterpiece and a contemporary classic.