Review of Run Lola Run (1998) by Travis B — 26 Aug 2009

Lola Rennt is definitely in my top ten favourites. Anyone and everyone in the 21st Century can relate to at least one element of this film. Whether it be in from the family relationship perspective e.g. alienated someway by your parents, the feeling of being shut out, or the feeling of wanting hold onto someone so desperately that you'll do anything for them in order to try and stay with them. But surely the most common theme throughout this film is the essence of TIME. How TIME controls everything and no matter what the normal human being does, we cannot stop it, alter it, or change its course. Time has a knock on effect on the series of events that follow. Ever missed a bus on the way to work, thus you were late for work, imagine the most extreme circumstances and that you were fired for being late, and you were late because you missed the bus and the thought that comes into your head?' If only...' And this chain reaction is exactly what Tykwer is trying to defy. Time. Time and fate. By the end of the film Lola is in control of her own fate. Each time she meets someone on her journey she changes his or her fate.

A weird and wonderful twist of make-belief through use of a fantastic melange of cinematic techniques, like a timeless bubble. Is it a music video, a computer game, or a 'groundhog' type film? It's all free for interpretation. Tykwer put a lot of thought into the use of medium to keep the audiences attention, to convince them that this is a mixture of make-belief and reality. Shown through the use of cartoons verse hand held camera, photographic evidences verses red scenes (reflection time). Possibly we believe by the end of the film?if Lola can change time, change a sequence of events, can we?

This is a film that I never tire from. Each time I watch it I notice something that I didn't see the first time. The concept of time, its power and our destiny grows stronger, spinning round and round in my head.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.