TNL Movie Club: Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run)

[Rich]

I've recently been getting into foreign language films (past year or so) and there were two in particular I was having trouble picking between.. both in the IMDB top 250. The first is actually a fantastic movie, but I decided against picking it because it can get quite boring seeing as how it's a Dogme film (the first, actually). The film is the dutch film Festen where a family returns for a reunion to celebrate the 60th birthday of the father, and the son reveals that all the children were sexually abused. As a Dogme film, it's filmed with a handheld camera, has no sets, and has no outside sound added... and it all comes together for a great movie. http://imdb.com/title/tt0154420/

Festen, however, is not the film I chose. I've chosen the German film Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run in english) which is about a German girl who has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks before her boyfriends robs a supermarket. The film follows the girl, Lola, from getting the phone call from her boyfriend to the 20 minutes until he robs the supermarket, and then after the 20 minutes, it does it all again with Lola choosing a different path. It follows 3 different paths, and has some awesome animation and, in general, just some sweet fucking cinematography.

Oh, and the girl is pretty hot. (from the Bourne Identity/Supremacy movies)

http://imdb.com/title/tt0130827/

I recommend you guys watch both, but Lola Rennt is a definite watch in my opinoin.

[Compass]

Run Lola Run is possibly my favorite movie of all time. I saw it twice in the theatres when I rarely go to the theater at all. Maybe the most stylish movie ever.

[Rich]

I didn't even know it was released in theaters stateside; that's awesome. Maybe it's not as niche as I thought, which is most certainly a good thing. I first saw it in a film class 3 semesters ago, and immediately watched it again within a few weeks, then wrote my final paper on it.

Man, that class rocked. Run Lola Run and City of God back to back to finish this semester.

Now go watch Festen.

[Survival Kid]

Loved this movie. First time I saw it was in the late 90's or early 2000's on IFC. I seem to always rent it on a whim every now and then. I should probably just buy the DVD.

One thing you didn't mention Rich, on her way to her boyfriend Lola runs into(literally) a few different people and the second she does the film shows you what becomes of their lives in a series of polaroid shots which change drastically with each segment due to seemingly subtle actions. It's a nice touch that really adds a lot to the film overall.

Also, the director, Tom Tywker, has a movie in theaters right now called Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Looks really interesting and I've enjoyed everything of his I've seen so I'm gonna check it out next week.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0396171/

[Rich]

One thing you didn't mention Rich, on her way to her boyfriend Lola runs into(literally) a few different people and the second she does the film shows you what becomes of their lives in a series of polaroid shots which change drastically with each segment due to seemingly subtle actions. It's a nice touch that really adds a lot to the film overall.



http://imdb.com/title/tt0396171/

It's been about 6 months since I've last seen it, so while I recall what you're talking about, I didn't realize it at first.

Also, I haven't seen anything else from this director; maybe I'll check some out on my own this week.

[Rumpy]

Good choice, I've heard good things about this.

[Regus]

I've seen this a bunch of times, IFC likes to air it every once in a while, and I have an old VHS of it in my attic. Be sure to watch the german version and the dubbed one. This is one of those movies you just assume every one has seen.

Great movie btw.

[MechDeus]

I didn't even know it was released in theaters stateside; that's awesome. Maybe it's not as niche as I thought, which is most certainly a good thing.

It was a smaller run, not a huge multiplex showing film or anything. I think it was shown here first at the Cleveland Institute of Art theater (which gets all sorts of obscure foriegn movies as well as things like Vampire Hunter D and GITS) and later on moved to another local theater that runs more well known kinds of movies like Eternal Sunshine.

Regardless, I saw it a few times at both theaters because it's a fucking awesome movie. I also used one of the songs from this film to make a music video a few years later (track 05 on the CD, damned if I can remember the name).

The film follows the girl, Lola, from getting the phone call from her boyfriend to the 20 minutes until he robs the supermarket, and then after the 20 minutes, it does it all again with Lola choosing a different path.

I always thought of it as "Lola trying to get things right," where each time there's failure but she's subconciously learning outside of time in order to try and make things how they should be. It's been a few years since I've seen it but IIRC she keeps correcting mistakes, like tripping on the dog and then later jumping over it until finally everything works out.

[voltz]

Lola bugged me on 2 points, first being why she repeated herself without having any explanation and second on what this would've been like if she wasn't shot, then the film continued on a wild goose chase for the remaining 2 hours.

I almost say the same for Kingpin. If they haven't bumped up everything to the future, we could've had the Caddyshack of bowling.

[Rich]

then the film continued on a wild goose chase for the remaining 2 hours.

It's an 80 minute film.