Product Description

The story of two young lovers who find themselves with very little time when a shady deal goes awry. Manni, who works for the mob, has 20 minutes to find 100,000 missing Deutsche marks. Lola is the only person who can rescue him from a terrible fate.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6141 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1999-12-21
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: German
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 80 minutes

Amazon.com
It's difficult to create a film that's fast paced, exciting, and aesthetically appealing without diluting its dialogue. Run Lola Run, directed and written by Tom Tykwer, is an enchanting balance of pace and narrative, creating a universal parable that leaps over cultural barriers. This is the story of young Lola (Franka Potente) and her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu). In the space of 20 minutes, they must come up with 100,000 deutsche marks to pay back a seedy gangster, who will be less than forgiving when he finds out that Manni incompetently lost his cash to an opportunistic vagrant. Lola, confronted with one obstacle after another, rides an emotional roller coaster in her high-speed efforts to help the hapless Manni--attempting to extract the cash first from her double-dealing father (appropriately a bank manager), and then by any means necessary. From this point nothing goes right for either protagonist, but just when you think you've figured out the movie, the director introduces a series of brilliant existential twists that boggle the mind. Tykwer uses rapid camera movements and innovative pauses to explore the theme of cause and effect. Accompanied by a pulse-pounding soundtrack, we follow Lola through every turn and every heartbreak as she and Manni rush forward on a collision course with fate. There were a variety of original and intelligent films released in 1999, but perhaps none were as witty and clever as this little gem--one of the best foreign films of the year. --Jeremy Storey

From The New Yorker
Lola (Franka Potente), a ferociously willful punk girl with orange hair, has twenty minutes to come up with a hundred thousand marks and save her hapless boyfriend, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), from the wrath of a big-time gangster. The writer-director, Tom Tykwer, shows us one version of what happens, and then he gives us two others, each of which takes off from the initial circumstances but has the characters make different decisions along the way, producing different climaxes. The action of the movie is rush, rush, rush-Lola runs through Berlin-but the effect is contemplative, almost metaphysical. In German. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Raver Fairy Tale
First, to appreciate the background behind "Run Lola Run" it helps to have some perspective on modern German society. Here are some observations to set the stage:

For most Germans, if they well in school or learn a trade, and are willing to work hard and pay their dues, they will be rewarded with a conventional, comfortable lifestyle. They will have 6 weeks vacation, enjoy inexpensive holiday resorts, live in a comfortable if cramped flat, have paid medical care, and eventually mortgage themselves for fifty years to buy a house or their own flat. Und--they VILL enjoy it!

However, for those people living in the sections that were formerly communist East Germany, unemployment is higher, and all over Germany, if anyone has a dysfunctional family, or has some kind of problem, or just doesn't fit in, life can be very tough and very hopeless. This is the state that a lot of young people find themselves in, especially around Berlin, Halle, Magdeburg and other of the larger, more troubled German urban areas.

Now, this is the backdrop for Lola and her boyfriend Manni. Manni is beginning a promising career as a drug dealer, making his first score. He is on the point of delivering the bag of cash to the mob boss. Never mind that this little career move will most likely land him 15 years in prison followed by a lifetime of being shunned and being practically unemployable; that is, if he survives the police hunt for his sorry arse. But Manni feels hopeless and trapped, so what's the risk? Lola, who comes from a wealthy but dysfunctional Berlin family, is needy and eager to help her Manni. Neither question the outcome of their actions.

Yes, they both goof up, Lola forgets her assignment and goes off for a pack of smokes, Manni panics and now his very life is on the line. And Lola volunteers to help, putting her life on the line, though she doesn't realize that she is in peril. She has twenty minutes to solve this life-and-death issue. And she DOES it, while filmed like a rock video in flashes, running like a madwoman through Berlin to get to the prize.

If you don't like the outcome, the inevitable, the sad, just wait a minute, the filmmaker, god that he is, can change all that for you. If you want a fairy godmother, he's prepared to be one for you. Just scream like an infant, as Lola does, and director Tom Tykwer will grant your wish. If you then don't like that particular wave of his magic wand, well, wait another minute. But don't look too closely, or you will see an accusation that actions DO have consequences.

Though filmed creatively and in burst-like flashes, the story is completely coherent and even has a moral, or two, or three.
As to the film itself, it is better letterboxed to appreciate the cinematography. The subtitles are accurate, though the swears and other nasty epithets are made a bit milder than actually they are in vernacular German--perhaps because they look pretty stark when printed rather than spoken. This is a film that is worth seeing quite a few times to pick up the nuances and missed frames--you can't blink for a second because you will miss something important.

HIGHLY Recommended --entertaining, yet good for family discussions about choices in life.

A Frenzied Masterpiece
Run Lola Run is the type of frenzied arthouse picture that just doesn't get made here in North America. That's really a shame because Run Lola Run is definitley one of the best movies of the year. From a cinematic point of view "Lola" is one of the most creative and energetic films that I have ever seen.

The plot revolves around Lola, a woman who has twenty minutes to save her boyfriend's life from German gangsters. To do this she must miraculously acquire 100,000 Marks.

The film is appropriately titled as Lola really does run for practically the entire film. When she does not succeed in saving her boyfriend the movie cuts back to the opening sequence and the film plays out yet again in an entirely different fashion. The central idea is that small variations in behaviour can change the entire outcome of a situation. This idea was also explored in "Sliding Doors", unfortunately, with far more mixed results.

Eventually the cycle repeats itself three times over the movies one hour twenty minute screen time. Run Lola Run is just bubbling with creative ideas and really is a stunning ride. The action never really lets up (except in a brief bed scene) and is filmed in the kind of frenetic, crazy style that MTV would be proud of. Lola is also extremely funny in many parts especially when the film briefly delves into the future's of various small characters.

This is a perfect little film that stands up to repeated viewings. It is smart, entertaining and is something that is completely unique. Hollywood movies rarely have those three qualities, this German one does.

Sliding Doors Meets Trainspotting - Five Stars isn't enough!
Catch this superb German film before Hollywood decides to remake it (and believe me, they will). This is cinema in its purest, most kinetic form.

The plot is simple: Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 marks that her boyfriend Manni owes to drug dealers, otherwise he's going to have to rob a store to get it. And that's it, basically. Only, ingeniously, we are treated to 3 versions of her run (or perhaps alternative universes), events unfolding differently depending on how long it takes her and the choices she makes. The attention to detail is stunning, and every little image and incident is relevant to the taut plotting. A wonderfully choreographed study of time and space.

What we have is a kind of Sliding Doors (or Fowles' French Lieutenant's Woman) meets Pulp Fiction with all the energy and modernity of Trainspotting, mixing drama, tragedy and dark humour. Run Lola Run is a whirlwind race against time as our flame-haired heroine pounds the sidewalks of Berlin, unknowingly initiating traffic accidents, bank heists, uncovering dark family secrets, and changing the lives of the people she encounters on her way (beautifully executed in a series of Polaroid montages) in a complex web of cause and effect.

Furiously paced, and edited, Twyker's masterpiece of Chance bombards us with an entire catalogue of camera tricks, techniques and mediums; split screen, time lapse, animation (in the cartoon sense), anything to grab our attention and immerse us in the situation, and is enhance by an excellent techno soundtrack (composed by Twyker).

Presented on DVD with a decent extras package, Run Lola Run is a rush - in every sense of the word - from start to finish. (Watch it in German with the English subtitles, however, as the dubbed English soundtrack is dire.)