In this essay I will be thoroughly focusing on the
first segment of Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola
Run (Lola Rennt, 1999) spanning
from the very beginning of the film until exactly thirty-three minutes. My main
objective is to give my personal view of that segment in particular, while
providing examples of how the narrative and mis en scène play part in the
extract. I will be going into detail about the different themes and meanings as
I see them, at the same time getting support from various sources from
different academics, and of course the clip itself. I will refrain from being
biased, for my writing of this essay itself should show my admiration for the
film. I hope to engage in the character of Lola and her choices and actions in
relation to what I think Tykwer is out to prove. His usage of different
elements – clocks and time, the whole film as a sort of metaphor for a video
game, shots of photographs of people passing by, the colour red, and finally a
flashback sequence of the two central characters in a crimson room lying on a
bed having a conversation – have different meanings on which I hope to share my
understanding on.
Time is really all Run
Lola Run is about. Whether it were the representations of clocks seen in
several scenes, or her being literally split-seconds away from stopping Manni
from robbing the grocery store, time is a key element in the film. The film
sets off its narrative through the simple element of the ticking of a clock,
whereas we (the viewer) are “given a ‘treatment’ in terms of plotline, and this
is perceived as being what the film is ‘about’” (Rowe, A. and Wells, P., 2003:
78). Lola has been put under an impossible task that even heroes in comic books
would most likely fail to accomplish. The only difference is that Lola has the
luxury of getting more than one chance to do this – of course without her
knowing so – and even the power to learn from her mistakes as if she were some
sort of character in a video game. As the film so obviously challenges realism
– as we see bottles shatter by her scream, the telephone land in place after
she so neglectfully tosses it over her shoulder, the irony of her passing the
homeless man on the street with the money and of course having only 20 minutes
to find 100,000 DM – the narrative allows her to ‘jump in time’ and restart
after her previous failure.
I also see the film as a very built-in character
study. The film’s narrative is mainly seen from Lola’s point of view as the viewer
is taken to a journey from her perspective. Tykwer is trying to establish a
relationship with how Lola’s views relate with that of what the narrator talks
about in the very beginning of the film. As the narrator goes on to ask a set
of rhetorical questions such as “who are we?”, “where do we come from?”, “where
are we going?”, we have yet to meet Lola as the camera peers through a ‘crowd of
strangers’. I understand this shot as a metaphor for Lola’s ‘big day’. We are
taken to a brief trip with Lola only to see her shot in the chest before
cutting into a bedroom where she is in the midst of a similar deep conversation
with Manni. “Narrative involves the viewer in making sense of what is seen”
(ibid: 80) and as she questions her love for him the thoughts of the narrator
bring much relevance to the scene as in reality she is right when she tells
Manni that “I could be anyone”. She appears to be lost, but not only is she
risking her own life for Manni, she is transforming the world around her.
“Narrative develops on the basis of cause-and-effect” (ibid: 80) and as she
passes random people on the street her encounter with these individuals always
has a different outcome as in the previous, making every encounter anyone makes
in the world seem meaningful.“Tykwer illustrates how the smallest change in
what a person does can alter the rest of their life (not to mention the lives
of others, including complete strangers she passes on the street)”. (Elsaesser,
2005: 276) I see this as every individual choice that Lola makes has its
consequences, in which every action has its different set of motions. It
affects all the people around her whether she knows it or not or whether she
wishes so or not. She is clueless struggling in the midst of her own troubles
leaving her blinded by the world moving around her.
The mis en scène in the film is set up to make Lola
seem nothing more than a vulnerable and troubled chess piece in the game too
grand for her to control. The way the camera works with the music changes the
tone of the film. As we see Lola run only after the camera has spun around her
having chosen her father as the “chosen one”, she exits her apartment building
with the camera being placed high up from her making her seem the size of an
insect compared to the world she embarks upon. “Conventional accounts suggest
that low-angle shots imply the power of the subject – usually a human figure –
and a high-angle shot its weakness”. (Rowe, A. and Wells, P., 2003: 72). This
happens as the journey from her apartment building continues all the way to the
destination of the grocery store where Manni is. Berlin is her playground and the
camera moves with her even appearing in slow motion while she moves with
desperation on her face as if she were running in water. While the camera shows
her as weak, the music starts off in an upbeat and fast-tempo techno track
giving the viewer the sense that despite the odds that are against her, she has
hope. While the stage stays the same, events change when she is seen running
away with Manni and the bag of money; the camera slows down and as the music
turns into a slow-tempo blues song by Dinah Washington little hope is left in
the couple’s getaway.
The colour red is seen as a very strong visual element
or even ‘prop’. I see all these – the colour of her hair, the telephone, the
ambulance, the bag with the money after the robbery and finally the room where
Lola and Manni lie in – with much connotation when it comes to the mis en
scène. “Films are also dependent on ‘props’ as a device for conveying meaning”
(ibid: 66). Even before we see Lola in the film, we see a close-up of the red
telephone ringing in urgency waiting to get picked up, followed by a lady in
red (this time none other than her visually striking coloured dark red hair).
The viewer is swiftly taken to the understanding that we are dealing with a
strong central female character with not the most feminine of traits seen by
her clothing and her hairstyle. Instead, a strong, maybe even troubled young
woman expecting a phone call that might have the direst of consequences. Red
may only be a colour but the striking force behind it is immediately
recognisable. I may even call it a double-edged sword for as it may represent
softer images such as love and joy, traits like danger and death also come to
mind. As she races to save her love, an ambulance in an equal hurry passes her,
nearly crashing while the driver is stricken by her panic. One cannot but see
the irony behind this, for a vehicle attempting to rescue lives nearly becomes
the taker of life – and eventually, it does. Finally, the last part of the
segment ends with a red room having the camera point down towards Lola and
Manni. What only a few seconds ago ended with death cuts into a very different
place in the life of the two where a conversation about love instigates.
As I have been trying to prove, Run Lola Run has numerous amounts of meaning under its rough
exterior. I have sought to explore these matters through a close viewing of the
film as a whole while going back to the first segment several times. Tykwer
proves that he does not have to escape a setting for the film to excel, as the
power is in the strong character of Lola and the events that circulate around
her. While she is no Lara Croft, she may appear to be in the same situation. As
she does not succeed at first through her moves and mistakes, it makes her seem
all the more human. Tykwer’s camera-work, storytelling technique, the props and
the characters he presents help transform a simple idea into a journey of
unanswered questions. The narrative works along with the idea of her getting
several chances without further explaining how this happens, for it gives the
viewer that much more room for the imagination. While the film is associated
with its usages of colour, one may come to devalue its meaning and ask of its
relevance in the form of ‘why?’ as I may go on to question it as well, but only
in the form of ‘why not?’ It is precisely the small things that make the difference
in the end and Run Lola Run proves
this ever so well.
Bibliography
Rowe, A. and Wells, P. ed. Nelmes, J. (2003). An Introduction to Film Studies: Fourth Edition. London: Routledge.
Elsaesser, T. (2005) European
Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
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