Run Lola Run

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Hyperkinetic Lola (Franka Potente) receives a call from her beloved thug-flunky boyfriend. He's lost 100,000 deutsche-marks in a drug deal and needs the sum in 20 minutes … or else. After emitting a glass-shattering scream, Lola is off and running in a frenetic dash about Berlin to find money for Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu).

The premise is simple, but the dazzling style of director Tom Tykwer makes Run Lola Run a perfectly executed exercise in post-MTV film production. He mixes 35 millimeter with black-and-white and a pounding pop-techno soundtrack. There's slow-motion, quick cuts, fluid camera arcs, split-screen action, and even a punchy bit of animation. The tale of Lola and Mani is told not once but three times, each resulting with a different outcome hinging on hilarious details. Tywker choreographs Berlin into a jungle of fate and speed. Action-heroine for the end of the millennium, flaming haired Lola careens through it with brainy initiative and slapdash boldness, just like the film itself.