Lola rennt
Tags: whimsical, thought-provoking, cult, alternate reality, violence, flashback, psychedelic, humor, romantic, entertaining

Plot synopsis:
The movie opens with a series of questions about humanity and what we know to be true. After the credits, the camera zooms into a house and stops at a ringing telephone. Lola picks up and begins talking to Manni. Manni is in a telephone booth and questions her about where she has been since she was supposed to be waiting for him at the spot they had planned on. She tells him some guy stole the moped she was on while she was in the store and that it happened so fast she couldn't catch up to him. Manni begins to cry. He tells Lola that he made a big mistake and claims they're going to kill him. Lola asks him what happened and he begins to recollect the events. He says everything was going as planned; the car transactions went well, he got the diamonds he needed and crossed the border successfully, his encounter with a dealer went well, and he got the money he needed: 100,000 marks. All that was missing was her waiting for him at the spot. He walked to the train station and got on, but a bum bumped into him and fell. He helped the bum up, but two security guards got on the train. On instinct, he got off leaving the bag of money on the seat. He did not realize it until a minute or two later. He tried to go back to get the money but was stopped by the two security guards. The train left with the bag of money and the bum opened it, immediately grabbing it for himself. Manni tells Lola he would not be in this situation if she had been there on time. He blames her for being so sensitive and for believing love can solve anything. He tells her to come up with 100,000 marks in twenty minutes because that is all the time he has left before he has to meet Ronnie, his boss, and turn in the money or else he will kill him. He begins to tell her that over and over again until Lola screams "Stop" so loud, a few glasses on her TV set break. She finally tells him that she will come up with something in twenty minutes. She tells him to stay where he is and she will get him the money. He gets desperate and spots a store across from his phone booth and tells her that he is going rob it because that's the only way he can come up with that much money in twenty minutes. Lola thinks he is crazy and tells him again not to move from there. She tosses the phone and begins to think who she can go to. Images of possible people flash in her head until she finally decides on her dad.First Run: She begins to run through the city, and she bumps into a woman and her baby in a carriage. In a series of photo shots, it depicts the woman's future. Her baby is being taken away by social services and she ends up taking someone else's baby in a park. The camera returns to Lola running. Meanwhile, her dad and a woman is having a conversation in his office at a bank. The woman is telling him that she cannot go on lying and doesn't know who she will wait for a man who doesn't want to be with her. Lola continues running and encounters a guy on a bike who, while riding next to her, wants to sell her the bike for 50 marks. She says no. In a series of photo shots, his future is shown. He gets beat up by some men, and his bike is taken away. He ends up in a hospital where he meets a nurse, and they get married. It goes back to Lola crossing in front a car that barely misses her. The man driving stares at her and doesn't see another car coming, crashing into it. Manni is still in the phone booth. He is talking to someone and asks the person what he is supposed to do with 500 marks. He hangs up and returns the phone card to the blind lady he borrowed it from, but she doesn't take it. Meanwhile, Lola's dad and the woman are still talking and she tells him he has to decide whether or not he wants to be with her because she's pregnant. Lola finally reaches her dads work and is running to his office but accidentally bumps into a clerical worker. Again, in a series of photo shots, her future is shown. She gets into a car accident, is paralyzed, and then commits suicide. Lola finally reaches her dad's office and asks him for help. She tells him she needs 100,000 marks or her boyfriend will die. He starts to ask questions about her boyfriend and she tells him It doesn't matter in a scream so loud, she breaks the glass wall clock. He then walks her out and tells her he is leaving her mother and marrying another woman. He also tells her that he is not her father and throws her out. Lola is dazed for a little bit then exits the bank. A lady approaches her and asks her what is wrong, but Lola asks for the time and begins to run again. Manni is on the phone with someone and seems frustrated. He walks up to the store he plans on robbing and looks inside. Meanwhile, Lola is running and repeating over and over for Manni to wait for her. Manni makes up his mind and enters the store. Lola gets there too late because he is already pointing a gun and telling the cashiers to open the cash registers. She bangs on the window glass and asks him why he didn't wait for her. He tells her she got here too late. He then asks her if she is with him. At first, she just wants to leave, but she then grabs a bag of glass bottles from a lady nearby, goes into the store, and hits the security guard on the head. She grabs the gun from the guard and covers for Manni while he gets the money from the registers. They take off running, but the police block them. They run the other way but get blocked from that direction as well. Manni throws the bag of cash at the police. While looking up at the bag, the cop accidentally fires his drawn gun and hits Lola in the chest. She falls back, and Manni goes to her. She thinks back to when she and Manni were in bed together, and she questions his love for her. Manni finally asks her if she wants to leave. She replies no; she does not want to leave. She then says, "Stop", and the movie goes back to the beginning.Second Run: She hangs up the phone and begins running with her dad already in mind. She bumps into the same woman and her baby. This time, in the series of photo shots, the woman wins the lotto and is happy. Lola continues to run and encounters the man on the bike again, but this time his photo shots depict him as a bum and a drug junkie. She keeps running and instead of crossing the car, she jumps over it. The man still crashes into the other car because he is staring at her. She continues to run and bumps into the homeless guy with the bag of cash. She obviously does not know he has the money and keeps running. Meanwhile, her dad and the woman are having the same conversation. She asks him if he wants to have a baby with her even though it might not be his. At that moment, Lola enters the bank. This time, as she is running to her dad's office, she doesn't bump into the clerical worker. She gets to the office and finds them arguing. This time, he is telling the woman he cannot leave his sick wife and three kids. He tells Lola to leave them alone and go home, but she tells him she needs money. The woman tells her she should be ashamed for barging in on them. Lola calls her a stupid cow and her dad slaps her across the face. Lola begins to throw objects at her dad and leaves on her own. As she exits, the security guard tells her she can't always have what she wants. She walks back, but takes the guards gun with her. She reaches her dad again and tells him to go with her, but not before she shoots at the wall next to his head to let him know she is serious. She holds the gun to his head as they're walking out. The clerical worker tries to stop them, but Lola tells her to get lost. This time, in the clerical workers photo shots, she meets someone within the bank who likes to play dominatrix with her. Lola and her dad reach the front of the bank and tells one of the tellers to bag 100,000 marks. However, he only has 88,000 marks has to go downstairs to get the rest. He returns, and Lola tells him to put the money in the garbage can. She takes the bag and leaves. The police have the bank surrounded already. She just stands there staring at them, but the police tell her to get out of the way. They think it is someone else holding up the bank, so she begins to run to Manni. Manni is looking into the store he is going to rob. Just as he makes up his mind to go in, Lola calls to him. He turns around to go to her, but as he is crossing the street, he gets run over by an ambulance. This time, as he is lying on the street, he flashes back to when he and Lola are in bed together and asks her what she would do if he died. They go back and forth on the issue until Lola finally tells him he isn't dead yet, and the movie returns to the beginning again.Third Run: Lola hangs up the phone for a third time and starts to run through the city again. She encounters the woman with the baby but this time doesn't bump into her. This time the woman's photo shots depict her having a religious awakening. She encounters the guy on the bike but this time he doesn't try to sell her the bike and instead pulls into a sausage stand. The bum with the money is there and offers to buy the guy a drink. The bum tells him that some unexpected things can happen, and the guy tries to sell him the bike for 70 marks. Meanwhile, Lola is running and this time stumbles on the hood of the car. She and the driver recognize each other. He is Mr. Meyer, her dad's associate. He asks her if everything is okay. She replies no, and continues running. Meanwhile, the bum ends up buying the bike and riding it throughout the city. Lola's dad and the woman are conversing, and the woman asks him if he wants to have a baby with her. He says yes but then is interrupted by his secretary on the phone. She says Mr. Meyer is outside waiting for him, so the dad goes to him. Just as they're pulling off, Lola reaches the bank. She sees them and yells for them to stop. Meanwhile, Manni is getting out of the phone booth and returns the phone card to the blind lady. She tells him to wait and turns to look out on the street. Manni follows her gaze and notices the bum on the bike riding through the street. Manni recognizes him and chases after to him. He almost gets run over by Mr. Meyer, but Meyer swerves and hits another car head on. Meanwhile, Lola is still running and thinking about what to do. She almost gets run over by a truck, but she spots a casino and goes in. She gets a 100 mark chip and places her bet at a roulette table. She wins 3,500 marks, but she bets it all again on the same number. As the roulette wheel is spinning, she starts to scream really loud and breaks champagne glasses that people are holding. She wins the 100,000 marks she needs and takes off again to find Manni. Meanwhile, Manni stops the bum by pointing a gun at him and takes the money. The bum then asks for the gun, and Manni gives it to him. Lola gets into the back of an ambulance in which a sick man is there. His heart rate is irregular. She claims to be with him and holds his hand. His heart beat regulates. She gets out of the ambulance and calls out for Manni, but he isn't there. Then she sees him getting out of a car about a block away with Ronnie. They shake hands, and Manni begins to walk towards her. He asks her if everything is okay, and they begin walking together. After a minute or so, he asks her what is in the bag she is carrying, and the movie ends in a photo shot.

Review: From that moment on, the movie takes us through three stories of Lola's trials trying to get Manni's money in 20 minutes - and with every person she comes into contact with, their lives take on completely different forms, as shown by 30-second photo flash montages.
Well, maybe it isn't all that simple, but while others have plowed these same fertile fields, as recently as the film "Go", and also in "The Music of Chance", based on Paul Auster's novel, no one has dealt with such cosmic existential questions with more brilliant originality, fast paced action, and a pulsing score than in this German cinematic masterpiece.In a compact ninety minutes, combining snips of animation, cinema verité, quirky characters, situations and dialogue, and a pace that makes most music videos look like they've been filmed in slow motion, three versions of the same story sequence unfold, and each time conclude with a jolting finish that defies convention, and keeps the viewer guessing until the final frame.This is one of those rare cinematic events that is entertaining, satisfying, and absorbing, as well as flawlessly acted, staged, edited, produced and directed.
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.
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.
From here the film follows Lola choosing three paths, each going for 20 minutes, to getting the money for Manni.
At each of this situations, Lola shows great resources about how to help her petty criminal boyfriend, who has lost 100,000 DM, and now must account for the missing money.Franka Potente is the main reason why this movie works the way it does.
The supporting cast does good work under Mr. Tykwer's direction.It's a puzzle why Hollywood hasn't made an attempt to remake this film, since the Americans are obsessed with redoing material like "Run Lola Run".
of brilliantly shot action will keep the viewer enthralled with the love story of Manni and Lola who have to fight against time: 20 mins.
Lola starts running immediately thinking of a million different ways how to help the man who is the most important person in her life and she runs and runs.....The quality of cuts and camera shots, innovative techniques at the top of modern filming practically unknown to German viewers up to now will hopefully make 'Lola rennt' a blockbuster in the cinemas as it fully deserves it.Like 'Der Himmel über Berlin' (City of Angels', Ryan, Cage') and 'Bandits' this film is surely to be copied by Hollywood.
I believe that the director has used techno to try and get us inside Lola's head as she is running and stressing about Manni and all the other events that happen throughout this amazing film.
Lola's Determination to save her boyfriend Manni is very well projected as she enters the bank that her father runs, and throughout the three different versions of the story uses different techniques to try and save him.
By replaying through the same sort of events three times the director lets you really get a sense of feeling for the characters, especially Lola and as the film progresses you actually start to care about the characters and I think this was a really good quality in the film.
I've seen it a couple of times now and each time it is as fascinating as it was when I first saw it on the big screen.The most stunning thing about this movie is the fast pace that is maintained through all aspects of the film: the sound, the music, the camera perspectives, the editing, etc.
Plus Franka Potente does an excellent job to underline this effect.But to be honest: "Lola Rennt" is no film for the casual moviegoer who just wants to see another mainstream movie as we so often see it in Hollywood movies.
It is in nearly every aspect different from the average movie and has a lot of stylistic (animated sequences, split-screen, etc) and narrative twists that you won't see in most films today.Score: 10 out of 10.
Desperate and exasperated he calls up his girlfriend from a phonebooth and she is determined to help him  and now Lola has 20 minutes to run, find the money, and deliver them to Manni before he robs the convenience store.There are precious few films to which I award the perfect 10/10  and "Lola Rennt" (1998) is one of them.
The film has Lola (an energetic Franka Potente) run across the city, bumping into strangers, falling prey to detours and diversions  such as the typical huge sheet of glass plate carried by construction workers, the group of nuns, the woman with a baby carriage  but always keeping her focus on the task at hand.
This part is so exquisitely well-crafted that if you study the background elements you will find differing details such as the position of the train in relation to Lola in the beginning, the careful timing of vehicles and the fated movements of the people she encounters  it's a meticulous piece of film-making.For all its subtlety in craft and setting, Lola Rennt is first and foremost a very vibrant and alive film  and dare I say  very in-your-face.
Exhilarating thriller concerns a young punkette in Berlin named Lola (Franka Potente ,she broke up with longtime companion Tom Tykwer in spring 2002) who has twenty minutes to find and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks to her small-time criminal boyfriend before he robs a supermarket .
"Run Lola Run" is one of the most fun, involving, stylish movies I've seen in a long time.
The fun part is that we see Lola's journey three times with three very different outcomes, determined by little things that happen to Lola as she runs.Lola (the engaging Franka Potente) manages to be both an iconic, super-cool heroine, and a believable young woman who just wants to get her boyfriend out of trouble.
This is exhilarating film-making, with a propulsive soundtrack, a fast pace, and many flashy effects like animated and black-and-white sequences--in addition to the most stunning use of split-screen that I've ever seen.
The rapid-fire montages that show the fates of minor characters are superficially amusing, but unnecessarily hammer home the theme that "little things can have a huge effect on a person's life." However, the movie's philosophies are still ambiguous enough that there's a lot to think about when it's over.
Run, Lola, Run is a 1998 film from Germany which stars Franke Potente and Mauritz Bleibtreu (which in German means "stay true") as boyfriend and girlfriend in a desperate quest to replace 20,000 Deutschemarks within twenty minutes.The film begins with some universal questions -- who am I, etc., and then gets into the story.
The film goes on to show three twenty-minute sequences of Lola running and, depending upon what she decides to do, depending on whether her timing is just right or a little off to reach Manni, different things happen that decide the ending.
I was utterly satisfied and amazed by this cinematic masterpiece even though i did not know what to expect in the first place...all that narrative introduction filled with big time questions left me somehow on the track of a philosophical approach...i was ready for an ontological experience...but what really happened exceeded my imagination...we are facing here the real life experience seen through the eyes of a female teenager, we are witnessing the dramas that can occur only in a vivid imagination highly tributary to roll playing computer games and quests for identity...Maybe is for the first time in cinematography when we are witnessing the birth of an individual(speaking from a psychological point of view)...she reloads her own life in order to chose another path, and that only in a desperate attempt to solve a puzzle quest of love and duty...well, this is the romanticism of a high-tech generation; these are the tears of joy in a computer era; and this is the new ontology of the millennium...everything is virtual and when people actually interact there is a narrow limit between the outcome of their actions according to the choices they make...it is repetitive, it is about love, it is different, it is religious...and it is new and masterfully crafted...i'll give it 9 out of 10...and i'm ready to take another tour...
I'm sure there are earlier references as well.Granted, Franke Potente is good, but the characters are unsympathic (I couldn't care less about what happens to Manni, he's a loser's loser), the cheesy Euro-trash techno soundtrack is unbearably annoying, the animation is godawful, and the ending is so ludicrous I want to scream too.
--Animation inserted in live action--Parallel universes--Split screens--Heavy zoom shots--Hypermedia projections of the futures of incidental characters--A few visual jokes (a cartoon croupier `spins' her at the beginning)--Black and white flashbacks--Switching between video and 35mm--Real time action for each thread--Supernatural screams--Techno pacingDoes this add up to a new genre?
In this case, a heart-pumping, action-filled flick with an excellent soundtrack, and plenty of artistic weirdness to boot.Clocking in at a mere 80 minutes, this German-made film is infused with a quality normally seen in the cars this country produces.
Her boyfriend, Manni, is played by Moritz Bleibtreu, and his ridiculous behavior is pulled off well, especially when he loses the money and calls Lola in a blubbering panic.I loved, too, the incorporation of overlapping animation, something I enjoyed in the movie THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS.Connections within connections is the main theme here, but one that is brought to life by a vivid script and excellent camera work (the dizzying slow-downs and speed-ups may drive some to distraction but are vital to the story).I mentioned earlier the great soundtrack and that the director contributed his own voice and songs to it.
She has only 20 minutes in front of her to get the money and to save her man.Someone who didn't see "Lola rennt" (1998) and reads the basic topic might think that he deals with a movie with a hackneyed subject.
If she chooses one of these three solutions, it can lead to dramatic consequences for others characters (her father's colleague in the car).By adopting a clip side "à la MTV" in the making, by using all the possibilities offered by a camera (succession of pictures filmed in a fast way or scenes in slow motion), by including wild extracts of animation film, through precise camera angles "à la David Fincher" and with a sharp sense of detail, the director Tom Tykwer makes us really share her heroin's state of stress and the fact of knowing that to save her boyfriend is a matter of life and death strikes right at the heart.
It is also relevant to note down that Tykwer's camera nearly never stands still and finds moments of break between the three stories when Lola and Manni are lying side by side.Franka Potente with her loud red hair (which I interpret as a symbol of hope mingled with fear) in the wind, wearing a tank top spends most of her time to run in the film, hounded by the camera which continually follows her everywhere she goes, either it is a little street, an avenue or a building site but she also capable of emotion (when her father refuses to give her financial help, she starts to cry).
Lola had run with enormous success on numerous German screens, she had to run on plenty others foreign screens a bit all over the world to satisfy a lot of viewers.The clip side of the whole, the sustained use of the techno music will probably fail to please certain film enthusiasts but will surely perceive "Lola rennt" as a lively and a really great exercise of style.
We watch three frantic possible journeys with Lola, and only fate will determine whether the young couple's story will have a happy ending or not.We cannot deny Tom Tykwer's has talent and this is a small, cool film.
The twists and turns are simply absurd and the film doesn't even try to explain them  excusing them as merely part of the hyper-kinetic film being delivered!Potente tries hard as Lola and is pretty good looking running around in her small vest.
The film is mainly an exploration of choice, showing three different versions of the twenty-minute window Lola has to find 100,000 marks and deliver them to her boyfriend before he is killed by a crime boss.
Further emphasizing this is a series of snapshots illustrating what happens to many of the people Lola runs into, showing how the slightest difference in the way they interact leads to a chain reaction that completely changes their futures.
Why use animation for Lola going down the stairs?It's not that I always am looking for some deep film experience, I still felt disappointed that the movie didn't have more to it.
I might just be wrong.'  In the end, while I didn't regret spending the money (only two dollars were at stake this time around), I emerged with pretty much the feelings I'd expected to have when I'd opted not to go two years earlier: fine, Lola's running, she's got 20 minutes to solve this problem, the 'Sliding Doors' gimmick is thrown in to make a feature out of it, but...
Like I said, it wasn't a movie which made me curse the time and expenditure, but I really couldn't recommend it to anyone who expects more than 90 minutes' worth of popcorn-munching diversion from a film.
We see this philosophy in action as Lola runs into people during her rush and we watch (in a series of photographs) what happens to the person, good or bad.
"Run Lola Run" seems like what would happen if the editors of a film were to leave their 5-year-old sons or daughters in the editing room by themselves and permitted them to play around with the different devices and have as much fun as they want.
Lola Rennt (or Run, Lola, Run) is something completely different, interesting and non-Hollywood thing - thank God. Director has been very careful with details one might not see before watching Lola 8th time.
Four years on, this clearly had something to do with fashion because aside from the gimmicky real-time narrative, in three different versions, the only moral seems to be, "sometimes you get hit by a car or flattened by a truck and sometimes...you don't."  It would seem that Lola's determination and pseudo-supernatural powers (sort of a Back To The Beginning) hood-winked most IMdb users into thinking there was something of substance here (but then, these are the people who think Shawshank Redemption is a good film).
the subject matter could be dealt with more carefully and in more detail, and lola could have more shots at doing things rightcertainly the overall concept behind the movie is sound, and for those people that haven't considered the idea that life is a series of decisions and knock on effects, it could be illuminatingfor me, the presentation was a nice idea and i always take my hat off to some originality, but this one really didn't work for me at all (although it must have been an interesting study for the actors involved).
There is really no grey area with Run Lola Run. If you are looking for a fairly artsy foreign film with a distinctive life lesson, this movie is for you.
Here begins the film and Lola's running to get the money from her bank manager father before Manni holds up the grocery store he is at.
Lola Rennt is one of the few films that didn't lose it's magic when I it watched for the second time.
The film is dominated by the figure of Lola running, who is a young girl trying to save her boyfriend's life in 20 minutes by bringing him 100,000 Marks, which was to be paid to a thug her boyfriend is afraid of.
The fast pace of the scenes and the repetitious techno soundtrack adds to the suspense in the movie, and the effect is heightened because the audience is able to consider the action three different times.One of the interesting ironies in the plot is that it repeatedly explores the nature of romantic love in the tensions that exist between Lola's dependence on her father and her need to help her boyfriend.
The effect of repeating the time sequence is to allow the audience to more deeply consider the moral impact of Lola's actions, and how a simple thing such as bumping into a stranger might mean the difference between life and death.
Run Lola Run, directed by Tom Tykwer, was an excellent film.
Run Lola Run has so many elements that make it a great film that it did indeed deserve to be part of the top 250 movies of all time.
So I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I was going to.Other interesting points: We find out entirely different things about the characters in the three versions of the story.
Indeed we're shown how "character" is malleable depending on circumstances so I suppose there is quite a lot here to make you think, just not too much time to do so while the film is actually running.I very much liked jldmh1's contribution about Germans and punctuality, by the way.
Tom Tykwer's film works for all audiences in part because it sets up a simple premise: Lola must help her boyfriend Manni come up with 100,000 Deutsch marks in 20 minutes or his "employer" will kill him.