Run Lola Run, 1998.
Directed by Tom Tykwer
Starring Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri, Joachim Król, Armin Rohde, Heino Ferch, Suzanne von Borsody, Sebastian Schipper
SYNOPSIS:
The 1998 German classic Run Lola Run gets an encore release on 4K Ultra HD, courtesy of Sony. This is the same disc they released in late 2022, but if you’re a fan and haven’t gotten it yet, it’s worth picking up. The film looks great, and Sony commissioned a pair of new bonus features, in addition to porting over the previously available extras.
What if? That’s a question fundamental to the human condition. (Marvel Comics even has a series with that title.) We can all think of times in our lives when we made specific decisions that sent us down new paths, for better or for worse.
That’s the question at the heart of Tom Tykwer’s 1998 classic Run Lola Run, which has been released on 4K Ultra HD disc by Sony. The story is fairly simple: Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) needed to deliver 100,000 Deutschmarks to a gang leader, but he left the bag behind on the train and has 20 minutes to figure out what to do before the meeting.
So he calls his girlfriend Lola (Franka Potente), who assures him she will figure out a solution. After she hangs up, she races out the door of their apartment, confronts a ne’er-do-well and his dog in the hallway, and begins her journey to save Manni.
Her plan is to run to the bank where her father (Herbert Knaup) is the president and beg him for the money. Then she’ll meet Manni at the phone booth he called her from, hopefully before he enacts his plan to rob a nearby store to get the money he needs.
Lola has other confrontations during her run, which takes place three times during the 80-minute course of the movie. Each time, the outcome is slightly different, with rapid-fire photo montages showing us what happened to that person afterward, and the end of her run changes each time too.
A pair of so-called “red scenes” of Manni and Lola in bed, presumably in a flashback, provide breathers after the first and second runs, which play out with hard-driving techno music on the soundtrack.
The concept behind Run Lola Run is fairly simple, with a Rashomon-like quality, but it’s the execution that makes this film worth revisiting, 26 years after its initial release. I hadn’t watched this movie since its DVD release way back when, so it felt fresh and new to me. Sure, no one has a cell phone, but otherwise, this is easily a story that could take place today.
As far as I know, this is the same 4K Ultra HD edition issued by Sony in late 2022, and it looks great. The film has a subdued pastel palette that’s clean and sharp, with Lola’s distinctive red hair standing out while not being too bright.
There’s no Blu-ray in the case, nor a code for a digital copy, but we do get a pair of new bonus features (well, they were new in late 2022), along with the legacy extras. Here’s what you’ll find:
• Making of (39:30): This is a pretty comprehensive new documentary that takes us through the making of the movie from Tom Tykwer’s initial idea to the success the film attained worldwide. Like many other unique movies, many people doubted that Tykwer could make Run Lola Run’s central conceit work, but, of course, he proved them wrong.
• Still Running (16:58): A holdover from the 2008 Blu-ray, this one features Tykwer and various members of the cast and crew looking back on the film for its tenth anniversary.
• First audio commentary: Another holdover, this is a fun track with Tykwer and star Franka Potente talking about the movie. Potente’s energy is clear from the copious amounts of behind-the-scenes footage in the making-of, and she brings that same fun, bright style to this track too.
• Second audio commentary: This new track features Tykwer and editor Mathilde Bonnefoy chatting about the movie through the lens of Bonnefoy’s job. Run Lola Run is a very well-edited movie, of course, so this is a solid track too.
A music video and the theatrical trailer round out the platter.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
