Run Lola Run

Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt) (1998)

Runtime: 80 minutes

Directed by: Tom Tykwer

Starring: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri, Armin Rohde

From: Several different German companies

Lola sure does a lot of running throughout.

I know more people will be flabbergasted that this was a first-time-watch for me than hearing that this first time experience was on the big screen… at an AMC Theatre. It’s the movie’s 25th anniversary in the United States, Sony did a 4K restoration and not only is that playing at the independent cinemas, some mainstream places-mainly AMC-are also playing it for a week. 

By the time I saw the movie last year, I of course knew the basics of the plot: Lola has a low-level criminal boyfriend but he blows his one big shot so he needs 100,000 Deutschmarks in 20 minutes. She has a better than zero percent chance of doing so—as she lives in Berlin that is why a vehicle is not readily available. I knew it had a pulsating late 90’s Euro-techno soundtrack (boy, does it ever) & most famously, three versions of this same event are shown. What seemed like insignificant changes proved to drastically impact the outcome.

What I did not know—the movie was also edited in a bold way which buttressed the images on screen and the throbbing score. The animated moments were also unexpected. This is style over substance but it is still so stylish and most importantly, feels fresh even in 2024. Furthermore, the substance was still interesting-free will, fate, and The Butterfly Effect. Truth be told, shortly after the movie came out on video here, someone I knew saw the film; they were nonplussed by it. That was a reason why I didn’t give this a shot until now. At least I saw it in a big way… and my life probably wouldn’t been different if I had viewed it at home in late 1999.

I did not love all the wild ideas and flurries this had; that said, fans of Run Lola Run should go and view this on the big screen if possible. Sony did a swell job with their 4K restoration. Thankfully, the roles that Tom Tykwer and Franka Potente have had in English-language productions were better than expected given the average fate of someone who became famous in another language trying to make it big in America. The former has worked for years with the Wachowski siblings while the latter has been in some films/TV shows.

It's uncertain what other older movies will be shown by AMC for the rest of 2024; hopefully at least one will be a unique effort like Run Lola Run.