Run Lola Run

After a frantic phone call from her boyfriend Manni (Bleibtreu), Lola (Franka Potente) has twenty minutes to make 100000 DM and get it to him. Following a mix-up with a missing bag, Manni owes a lot of gangsters a lot of money, and he turns to Lola as the only one who
can help him. So she runs.

Set at a breakneck pace, Run Lola Run never lets up its gripping story and innovative approach. The narrative is split into three different retellings of the same story, each with a drastically different outcome. Will she get there in time? How will she get the money? The film poses the "what if?" question regarding how every minute detail of our lives can dramatically alter what eventually happens. Lola's three attempts are precisely controlled by fate and the way that the characters differ almost imperceptibly in each version is a delight to watch. We watch as omnipotent observers, with Twyker showing us in hyperactive three- second bursts the way each of Lola's interactions affect how their own lives develop.  Meanwhile, a second here or a second there could mean disaster or salvation for Lola and Manni, but Lola's determined relentlessness never once slows down.

Watching Run Lola Run is truly an experience like no other, mix the exhilarating opening of Trainspotting but spread over a whole film mixed with the philosophical issues of Sliding Doors and you've still got a long way to go. Twyker reinvents these and uses every trick in the book to create a film in which nothing is ever the same twice. The techno soundtrack keeps up the incredible pace of the film whilst hiding a deeper, more subtle aspects of the film like choice, fate, love and time.

Winner of the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, this thoroughly imaginative film combines nuns, guns, ambulances, mistresses, animated segments, mug shot credits and a reinvention of the Hollywood style. Over the three presentations of the action, Run Lola Run has more ingenuity and style than any three films put together. It grabs you by the throat and, well, runs with it.

Peter Lefort

How much can amateur criminal Manni rely upon his girlfriend Lola? Enough to save his life? When he accidentally loose 100, 000 marks after a drug deal he turns to desperation to his levelheaded, quick-thinking girlfriend. Blinded by love, Lola is willing to help, but has exactly 20 minutes to come up with a plan and reach her boyfriend before his psycho boss does. To make matters worse, Manni decides to hold up his local supermarket if she does not show.

The one person who can possibly help is Lola’s father who coincidentally is also a bank-manager. Begging Manni to wait for her, the flaming redhead commences on a techno-thumping sprint against time. The pressure is on, split second decisions are vital and every minute counts.

However the forces of fate and circumstance are also at work. What happens next in the film is down to the director’s imagination. Twyker manages to present three possible series of events with different outcomes, each one somehow linked to the next. Although this film has that ‘twist of fate’ feel, with each story something new is learnt about the characters and their relationship. IN turn, they seem to learn from their experiences, resulting in three separate stories, but in one film.

The film is an audio-visual experience in itself and won Best Audience Award at Cannes. Animation, still photography and pop-video imagery are combined and set to Twyker’s self-composed techno sound track.

This film definitely stands out from the rest. Not only is it a good story with a certain amount of humour, it has aesthetic appeal. If you fancy something different this is the one to see.

Soibhan Balfour