Tom Tykwer’s Use of Film Techniques in Run Lola Run

Run Lola Run is a German film directed by Tom Tykwer which reflects contemporary possibilities at the time of its release. Lola is the red-headed main character that needs to find a way to save her boyfriend Manni’s life. Tom Tykwer is an amazing director who created this ‘masterpiece’ which uses various visual and auditory features in order to convey a realistic interpretation of a modern world Berlin, Germany. The use of these features allows the audience to experience and connect with such a phenomenal film. Key themes explored in Run Lola Run include the concepts of choice, consequence, fate, time and chance. Tom describes the movie as ‘an experimental movie for a mass audience’, this affirms his support for the language barrier having no major impact on the audiences relationship with the film.

Visual techniques included in the film include split screen, slow motion, and a wide variety of camera angles, all to convey Tykwer’s realistic views of the film. The split screen is shown to express two situations which occurs concurrently at different places. In this scene a clock is shown as a third part of the split so that the emphasis on time is shown. Slow motion is seen when Lola is shot in her first ‘life’. This dramatizes her death putting a large impact on the movie and raises questions about the rest of the plot, being only thirty minutes in. Camera angles can add a huge array of meaning to the film from displaying someone as powerful, strong and important to making them small, useless and unworthy. A distinct camera shot is seen after Manni is hit by the ambulance. This bird’s eye view displays the isolation that Manni felt during the time without Lola by his side. At a point he thought Lola was completely dis involving herself with his life, leading him to question what he should do in order to save his own life. Throughout the movie a list of symbols can be seen, these are two main ones; a clock (which indicates the time) and spirals (seen as a symbol of confusion and mystery.) Both of these are seen in this one scene, the clock quite eye catching, the spiral is seen in the background as the form of a shop known as spirale.

An obvious audio technique used is the choice of music. The techno, fast paced music is effectively chosen to go with each scene to display a ‘fast’ experience. A main concept in the film is Time, the fast paced music demonstrates the intense twenty minutes that occur. Through the entirety of the movie, music is used to change the mindset of the audience and bring them to the emotion that the film makers are trying to convey. The music is categorised as non-diegetic as the characters cannot hear the tunes playing over the intense plot that they are faced with. An example of diegetic sound is the free flowing dialogue between characters which enrichens the narrative with a larger meaning. The phone in the scene where Lola finds out about manni’s trouble makes a sound effect which is heard after the handset drops back onto the phone, creating a ringing sound, one similar to a click when someone has a lightbulb moment.

The traditional narrative structure is one that flows on a linear timeline. These boundaries are broken in this film with similar events reoccurring multiple times in order to link the message to gamification. The difference between the original structure and the structure used in this film is the way that the message of the story is conveyed. Not only is this structure broken when she respawns, but her interaction with certain characters lead to alternate futures for them. An example of this is a character which is impacted in every replay of Lola’s life: Doris. Doris is walking down the street pushing a stroller when Lola passes her with speed. In the first scenario; Doris loses her baby and steals it back, in the second; she wins the lottery and lives a happy life, in the third she devotes her life to prayer and becomes a nun. In the first two scenarios, these lives are led by the words that Doris decides to say after her encounter with Lola - these being vulgar terms, leading to her consequence of those two lives. In her final life, she refrains from saying anything bad and leads to becoming a nun.

Gamification is the act of turning something that isn’t normally into a challenge. An objective is placed with a task that needs to be fulfilled. In Run Lola Run, the objective is to save Manni’s life by delivering 100,000 Deutsche Marks within a timeframe of twenty minutes. The objective is failed when Lola is unable to complete her challenge, sending her back to the start to try again. Lola is very much in control of her life when restarting because she has acquired the knowledge of her previous lives. This knowledge gives her an advantage to work a way around her previous choices, in hope of overcoming a bad consequence. An animation aspect is found in the tile sequence and at the start of each of her lives which mirror a video-game like theme. Lola is running through this course which takes a different approach each time she passes through the clock- shaped gates.

To conclude, the director, Tom Tykwer uses various visual and auditory features, an untraditional narrative structure and aspects of the contemporary world of gamification in order to shape meaning for the audience of Run Lola Run.