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Run Lola, run

Threat advisory: Severe - Severe risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Every second of every day, you make a choice that could change your life.

When we meet Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), a small time courier for a big time gangster, he is working a standard pick up/drop off and everything is going just fine. When the job is done, all he has to do is wait for his girlfriend, the orange haired punk girl Lola (Franka Potente), to pick him up. But today is unlike any other day. Due to an incident while she was buying a pack of cigarettes, Lola is late, and Lola is never late. One stroke of bad luck leads to another and by the time Manni calls Lola, he is at a pay phone with a big, big, big problem. His unforgiving boss will meet him in twenty minutes to pick up DM100,000; money that Manni, suddenly does not have.

Lola rushes out of her apartment and down the street, attempting to get to Manni and, somehow, pick up DM100,000 on the way. She tears though the city, in a whirl of bums, nuns, babies and guns. Down sidewalks, into offices, through traffic and back again. As her feet slap the pavement and the seconds tick down, the tiniest choices become life altering (or ending) decisions and the fine line between fate and fortune begins to blur.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Run Lola, run imageRun Lola, run imageRun Lola, run image

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

  • Film German crime romance relationship

Persons of interest

  • Franka Potente .... Lola
  • Moritz Bleibtreu .... Manni
  • Herbert Knaup .... Vater
  • Nina Petri .... Jutta Hansen
  • Armin Rohde .... Herr Schuster
  • Joachim Król .... Norbert von Au
  • Ludger Pistor .... Herr Meier
  • Suzanne von Borsody .... Frau Jäger
  • Sebastian Schipper .... Mike
  • Julia Lindig .... Doris
  • Lars Rudolph .... Herr Kruse
  • Tom Tykwer .... Screenwriter
  • Tom Tykwer .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Weird shit from the fatherland.

Run Lola, run takes romance, gangsters, soap operas and what ifs, blends them into a great big bowl of spicy sauerkraut and serves it up on toast. This, I advise, is a good thing.

The subtitles are barely necessary because the imagery and acting are so strong. The pace goes faster and faster as Lola runs further and further toward her destiny. Or does she? Where this film twists (well, one place where it twists) is the alteration of time. I do not worship linear time (as in Monday then Tuesday then Wednesday, etc.) but lives in a more holistic concept (as in the immortal words of Janice Joplin, "It's all the same day, man"), so this twist isn't as big for him as it will be for you. What was the point? Oh yeah, the twist is that whenever anyone dies they get to live their life over from the point where things went wrong. You then get to see what would've happened if...

It's a good idea, not new, but the approach certainly is. Rather than some crappy Hollywood thing with glowing lights and soft focus, Run Lola, run takes you back to Lola and Manni (very cute, by the way) in the middle of a blood-hued pillow talk. then life resets and off we go again. The point is, after all that rambling, that you never know what is going to happen. Just like life.

Franka and Moritz are both awesomely intense whether they're cool, panicked, dying, living or loving. The exterior storylines (and there are plenty to snack on) are also intense, yet subtle enough that they don't pull you away from Lola's run. This is a great film. I like it. You should check it out if you're at all into foreign films, German films, left of centre films, gangster films, weird films or romantic films.

Media intelligence (DVD)

  • Trailer: Theatrical
  • Music video: Believe by Franka Potente
  • Commentary: Tom Tykwer and Franka Potente
  • Filmographies for Tom Tykwer, Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu

Security censorship classification

M (Medium level violence, low level coarse language)

Surveillance time

90 minutes (1:30 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

DVD rental: 17 May 2000

Cinema surveillance images

Run Lola, run image

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