In Tom Twyker's film Run Lola Run, Lola is a character kinetically driven by her love for her boyfriend, Manni, and her desire to save him. This drive takes her on three separate but similar journeys, with fate and timing to decide the outcome. Lola's drive to find a hundred thousand marks for Manni in twenty minutes is a spastic journey of desperation played three times over. Because of this, the filming of motion throughout the film has been submitted to meticulous detail. Music, editing, sound and mise en scene also play major roles in the film's emphasis on movement. The film has a way of forcing the viewer to tension, imbuing in the audience a sense of fight or flight through the use of cinematic elements. In short, Lola's desperation, anguish, helplessness, determination and ultimate triumph are lived by the viewer as well. Run Lola Run is a film whose technical aspects work to simultaneously enhance the struggle of the protagonist, Lola, and fuse audience identification with her.
[...] However, even the cutting that takes place outside of the running scenes seems to accompany the speed and intensity that are the basis for the film. Specifically, cutting works in conjunction with the music and sound. When Lola first hangs up the phone with Manni, she looks at the clock and the camera cuts from her face to the clock, and then cuts three more times, each time bringing the clock in closer to the beat of the techno music that has started up. [...]
[...] The camera spins and cuts in a disorienting fashion as Lola tries to decide what to do. This is where subject matter and technicality collide and the viewer becomes anxious by both the time-sensitive aspects of the text and furiously short cuts. The average shot length in the film is 2.7 seconds[1]. If Twyker had simply chosen to film Lola's journey to the bank in one ongoing shot, it would take forever and the whole motif of motion would become literal and boring. [...]
[...] At first, this shot is close up and bouncy, and Lola dwindles in and out of the back of the frame. This gives the effect that Lola is falling behind but picking up more speed to try and gain dominance of the frame. The next shot is zoomed further out, and though Lola is still at the back of the frame, the shot seems more stable and as a result Lola also seems more in control and focused. Later on, after Lola leaves her father's bank, she appears more determined than ever by her positioning at the front and then the center of the frame. [...]
[...] However on the TV the image of dominoes falling in a huge chain reaction is a foretelling symbol for both the motion and speed Lola must take on and the lives of others she will affect along the way. Lola's journey on foot to save Manni begins with a cartoon of her running down the stairs. This cartoon is the starting point for Lola's motion, showing her descent to the street as spiraling and dark. This cartoon cut-scene works to remove the audience from reality for a moment, while at the same time representing visually the longevity of the journey she is about to make. [...]
[...] It acts like a break in the action, as Lola seems slower and less frantic from the height and distance of the crane. However the camera soon pans away from the symmetrical buildings and drops to the street to follow Lola again. When Lola turns the corner, the shot has changed into a close reverse dolly shot and she once again appears as a dynamo of kinetic energy. The tighter the shot is, the faster Lola appears to be running to the audience. [...]
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