Starring Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu and Herbert Knaup
Germany, 1998, 80 mins
Release Date: September 9th 1999
Run Lola Run is a film designed to slap you around, an inevitable response from neighbours sick
of your complaints about the current state of cinema. TOO SLOW. The broom stick handle hits
the roof, and the tenants feel it in their feet. NO STYLE. The tap becomes a repetitious thud,
and the whole flat hears the situation unfold. SAME OLD STORY. Straight through the carpet,
and a bruise on the poorly placed foot. Perhaps I should counter that opening salvo. The film is
also boring, desperately "hip" and almost completely devoid of content or point. As I left the
cinema I felt a certain unity with the elderly patrons who were in the midst of igniting the
post-film conversation: It's just one big video clip.
Films like this leave the humble reviewer with very little to discuss. If you like flashy editing and swooping camera angles cut together with animation, you'll love this. If you like the simultaneous sensation of an amused eye and a decomposing brain, you'll love this. Yes, the technique is impressive, but it is also poorly utilised. There are few lapses or longuers which add to the deliberation and masochism of the cinema. Watch the re-released Touch of Evil to see what I mean. In this film the effect is indulgent and relentless, mindless not breathless. If the relentlessness of the film was mired in a structurally necessary repetition, perhaps this would not be the case. As it is, the film feels like one self-indulgent loop, Sliding Doors for people who don't spend every waking hour discussing Gwyneth Paltrow's hair and whether she and Ben are really back together this time.
I avoid plot description for fear of ruining the entire story with one short sentence. The poster for the film should contain all the information a curious passer-by would ever need to know, yet this imaginary "common" viewer will have to wait a little while longer. Run Lola Run first has to make it through the State Theatre unscathed. If it is screened in between two documentaries about choose-your-own issue then it will probably go down quite well. In any other situation it is hard to imagine a sympathetic audience. Still, it is rare to find the phrase "German Romp" applicable to a film not primarily concerned with der alt in-hinaus, in-hinaus.
adam rivett
comments? email the author
eugene chew thinks Run Lola Run offers an interesting example of film's convergence with interactive video-games. check out his review.
natalia laban also liked the movie. read her review.
return to 1999 Sydney Film Festival index