Hi, all!
We had another great conversation this weekend. Thanks to all who joined to discuss ROPE, especially Dr. Chris Hansen, who brought such great insights!
Here is the video to watch if you could not join us.
**Please scroll down to answer my poll at the bottom of this post! Thanks!
This week’s film is a 1998 German language film directed by Tom Tykwer called Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt in German). We will meet to discuss it via Zoom this Saturday, March 23, at 2pm ET. I will send the Zoom link to paid subscribers later in the week.
You can watch the film on Amazon Prime, Youtube, or Apple TV.
The film is written and directed by Tykwer, and he also wrote the techno music used in the film. The film’s main star, Franka Potente, is the singer on the song “Believe” at the end of the film. They even released a music video of the song.
This week, I will not be including a lecture video as the focus of this film’s philosophical offerings are mainly VISUAL, and I want to encourage you to experience it without too many preconceived notions (except for my lengthy setup about the very beginning of the film). As Dr. Hansen said in our Saturday discussion, we need to practice thinking about the “grammar of cinema,” which are its form/ technical aspects. This film is very reliant on Frank Griebe’s masterful cinematography to truly tell the metaphysical aspects of a seemingly simple story in complex, compelling ways. It is primarily these elements that lead Barbara Costa to call the film, “The King of New Wave of German Cinema.”
The film itself is 81 minutes long. Although the look, feel, and sound of the movie is more important than most words used, it does open with some significant quotes and guiding questions which work as a preface to the story. (You will see these below).
After that, we have a quick setup for the PLOT: Smalltime crook, Manni, is on an errand delivering 100,000 Deutschmarks to his boss, Ronni. But on the way, he accidentally leaves the bag of money on the subway, where it is taken by a homeless man. Panicked Mannie runs to his girlfriend, Lola, exclaiming that he will be killed if he cannot recover the money in the next twenty minutes. Lola loves Manni, and she makes the recovery of the money her mission.
The rest of the film is divided into three different twenty minute real-time sections, three different scenarios from Lola’s perspective as she tries to save Manni’s life by finding the right amount of cash. The movie is very fast paced, fueled by German techno. It’s a sort of choose-your-own adventure book or even video game, complete with flaming red-haired avatar.
Before the film begins, we see these two epigraphs:
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring/ will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time."
- T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding" from The Four Quartets
"After the game is before the game."
- Sepp Herberger, German football player and manager
It is important to consider these quotes while watching the film. And it is quite fascinating to consider the very diverse sources, a world renowned poet and a German football player.
As the film opens, the camera quickly pans over a swarming group of people. The film is both blurry and sped up. We then hear a gentle, yet firm voiceover from a nostalgic source very familiar to Germans of a specific generation:
'Mankind, probably the most mysterious species on our planet. A mystery of open questions. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? How do we know what we believe to know? Why do we believe anything at all?
'Innumerable questions looking for an answer, an answer which will raise the next question and the following answer will raise a following question and so on and so forth.
'But in the end, isn't it always the same question and always the same answer?'
Although we are about to watch a crime/action film with a very simple plot, the film’s leading questions are philosophical ones. The voice is that of Hans Paetsch, a German actor who famously read fairy tales on children’s records and Saturday morning television shows. You can listen to him HERE.
While the voiceover is read, the sped up film slows down, and the camera zooms in on multiple characters to be featured in the film, distinguishing them from the amorphous blur of people.
The final figure is a man we will soon meet at Lola’s father’s workplace. His words relate back to the opening quote (above) from football player, S. Herberger:
'A football is round, a game lasts 90 minutes. That's for sure. Anything else is pure theory. Off we go!'
This unnamed character then kicks the ball up in the air as the music intensifies, and the crowd of people stand together to spell out the film’s title from the camera’s aerial view.
How to approach the rest of the film:
This “prologue” of sorts is very important for reading the rest of the film. The game of football is a metaphor for life, and the only facts we have are the shape of the ball and the length of the game. But even the length of the game is unclear/ problematized: as Claudia Mesch notes, the film is 81 minutes, just nine minutes short of a proper football match.
The philosophical questions asked at the beginning of the film seem very important–the keys to an examined life. BUT they are read by a man famous for telling fairy tales…
After the film’s quick plot setup, we dive to the three 20-minute stories of Lola’s attempt to retrieve the lost money for Manni. But each of these three stories are also three different ways of conceptualizing reality and our place in it.
Each of these three stories is what theorist Jean Francois Lyotard might refer to as “little narratives.” They are attempts to provide a framework to make sense of life by answering the very philosophical questions raised at the film’s opening.
Is any one narrative more true than the other? Is one more of a fairytale and one closer to reality? Or is it all “pure theory” beyond the basic facts that we live on this round ball of earth and will have a life span unto death.
Visual Elements
As I mentioned before, the most important elements of this film (after the opening prologue) are visual. I do not want to say too much more about the visual elements, but I will ask some questions below that might encourage you to slow down and think about some of these aspects of the film.
Why do you think the film opens with mugshot-like images of its characters with their names written below each image? Most films do not introduce and name their characters in this very overt way.
Why are some portions of the film made with handheld cameras and grainy, low resolution film (you can see this contrast especially in the scenes of Lola’s father and his lover)? Why are some parts in black and white film?
Why does the film incorporate cartoon sequences?
Look for and consider the many uses of circles and spirals. Also—dominoes!
What do we see in the flash forwards that occur when Lola bumps into another character while running?
Consider the many different ways the camera is used in the film: Dutch angle, Tracking shot, Aerial shot, Zoom lens, Split screen, etc.
You can read more about cinematography in the film on this website.
JUST FOR FUN: Google the words “Dutch angle".” LOL
How does the music impact your viewing/experience of the film?
What do you make of the Lola and Manni’s bedtime conversations between stories 1 and 2 and 2 and 3?
What in the world is going on with Lola’s scream?!
Note the depictions of blindness in the film.
How does the film work to make you sympathize (or even empathize) with the couple (who are criminals!)? Do you want them to get away with it?
When Lola is in the casino, there is a painting of the back of Kim Novack’s head as seen in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Director Tykwer is a big fan of the Hitchcock film. If you are familiar with it, what similarities do you see between the two films?
There is much more that I could write, but I will leave you with one last thing: a video of the film’s director talking about “chance” which obviously plays a large part in this film (or does it?).
What is to come in the next weeks:
Saturday, March. 23: Discussion of Run Lola Run at 2 pm ET
Saturday, March 30: Discussion of The Gospel According to St. Matthew at 2 pm ET
Saturday, April 6: Discussion of Days of Heaven at 2 pm ET. Special guest Jaap van Heusden
Please take the following poll about meeting on EASTER WEEKEND!
Thanks, all! Enjoy your week and see you soon.
Thank you so much for another excellent discussion! Our minds were blown when Sara mentioned the connection to Frankenstein.
It was also enlightening when Reg introduced the id/superego into the discussion. That made me think of this recent Jonathan Rogers piece about the inner critic. He says,
"People who give writing advice sometimes talk about the importance of silencing the inner critic. I get what they mean, but I think it’s more helpful to say, Don’t let the inner critic silence you. We have a name, after all, for people who have successfully silenced the inner critic. We call those people lunatics."
Here's the whole piece: https://thehabitweekly.substack.com/p/make-friends-with-the-inner-critic