Recently in class we watched a film called Run Lola Run by Tom Tykwer. The film turned out to be a highly diverse film which incorporated a wide range of distinctively visual elements and themes throughout the film. The film in itself is a fast paced, intense action packed with many implications along the way. The different forms of visual techniques used were extremely effective and was able to create meaning to shape distinctively visual images.
The composer has created a visual showpiece through the use of visual techniques in which it displayed the concept of love and time through distinctly visuals.Tykwer was successfully able to connect to the viewers emotionally and explore the themes of love, time, chance, fate, choice and consequence. In my opinion run lola run It is not a film that you would go and watch at the cinemas, however it is by far one of the most unique foreign films I have watched.
In the beginning of the film two quotes are shown; “We shall not cease from exploration at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive to where we started and know the place for the first time” – T.S Elliot. This first quote is a statement about time and “After the game is before the game”- S. Herberger is a philosophical statement about what a game is. These two statements together arised and idea and an important concept of the movie that life in itself is like a game.
Tykwer conveys this concept in the film through the themes mentioned before (love, time, chance, fate, choice and consequence on screen) Tykwer conveys the message that Lola and her boyfriend Mani are in love while also suggesting that love has the ability to influence a person’s decisions. This conveys a symbolic message and shows the audience how a relationship shapes meaning.
The composer uses the distinctively visual technique of the colour red to portray meaning. Red is shown throughout the film through the red phone Lola uses, the red Ambulance and the red wash scenes which is in the first and second run and of course Lola’s bright red hair which visually shows the protagonist Lola has all the control and of course has the power to save Mani. The Colour also symbolizes her love and passion for the love of her life, while also showing the danger she puts herself in in order a to keep her lover alive.
The deliberate and cleaver use of the bright red colour thought the various scenes becomes the focal point of the scene and it grabs the audience’s attention and is the very first thing you will take notice of. The object in the scene then becomes a connotation of the colour red. For example let’s take a look at this scene in the movie. The Red ambulance in all three of the runs symbolizes danger.
In the Second run the Ambulance which carries the sick crashes into the glass. Another example of this is the red Telephone Lola uses to contact Mani. The Telephone is Lola’s source of the bad information that is to come from Mani. The use of the split screen within the film visually connects Lola and Mani and shows the love they share with eachother by placing them side by side which symbolizes that these two are a couple emotionally and physically. This split screen also reveals just how reliant they are on eachother and Mani needs lola to be there for him and to save him. Lola also needs Mani and cannot imagine her life without him.
With this scene a medium shot is used here. It shows the protagonist Lola desperately begging and pleading to mani to wait for her. Lola and manni need each other in order to survive and without each other they have nothing. Another concept Tykwer explores is time. The Film focuses on Lola and her bid to save her lover which then becomes a race against time which sets the tone of the movie.
