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Film: Run Lola Run
Release date: 10th April 2000
Certificate: 15
Running time: 77 mins
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri, Armin Rohde
Genre: Crime/Thriller
Studio: Sony
Format: DVD
Country: Germany
Director Tom Tykwer’s fast-paced and multi-award-winning thriller centres around the choices we make, and how they affect our fate.
Lola (Potente) receives a worried phone call off her boyfriend Manni (Bleibtreu). He explains that after a diamond deal, he lost 100,000 DM belonging to his boss, and if he doesn’t get it in twenty minutes then he will be killed. Lola tells him she will get there and will help him, to which he replies that if she isn’t there in time he will rob the department store across the street.
Lola now has twenty minutes to find 100,000 DM and save her boyfriend. What ensues is a frantic run through town met with choices leading to possible alternatives and the ultimate outcomes of the day…
Believe it or not, the film is essentially only twenty minutes in length. That is the plot of the film. Once the first twenty minutes are up the audience is taken back to the start to relive it all again, only this time different choices are made which affect the final outcome. This happens three times in total, and also includes a brief glimpse into the characters’ lives prior to these frantic twenty minutes.
As Lola runs through the three alternatives she encounters various people along the way whose stories are glimpsed through snapshots and, like Lola’s, differ each time. In all variations, she tries to find help from her father, who is also going through his own different versions of events which intertwine with Lola’s. As with all the minor characters his future is also subject to choices and fate relating to Lola.
Foreign cinema is always producing films that aren’t necessarily what you would expect. Unlike a lot of the stuff from Hollywood it is made mainly through passion and an idea; not just to get bums on seats. Occasionally though, a film does succeed in being both fantastically well made and massively popular at the same time. In terms of this film, it is very different not only to Hollywood films, but to other foreign films as well. The idea of the film is very clever, and is pushed throughout, which makes the film very precise - and means that every single shot is important. Every scene includes another reminder that instils the viewer to think of their own life and the choices around them.
The film uses a wide variety of shooting techniques, from dolly shots and hand-held camera to snapshot-like jump cuts and even animation in parts. All of this could seem rather hectic, but within the film it does work. The fast cutting and tracking places the viewer in amongst the action, and really conveys the urgency of the situation.
It is a real credit to the acting, the emotion we feel for the characters. Not much is learnt about them over the three versions of the twenty minutes, and with such a short running time, you wouldn’t expect to care about them so much. By the third alternative, Lola runs through the now recognisable scenes and streets towards her fate and, despite having already seen a number of the shots, there is no boredom in it - in fact it is more enthralling.
The soundtrack to the film fits perfectly, and acts as a catalyst pushing you through streets as Lola runs towards her destiny. The film is helped further by incredibly good acting all-round. Bleibtreu puts in a very good performance as Manni, however, it is Potente who definitely steals the show as Lola. All the supporting cast are solid, especially Lola’s father who has to deal with a bank robbery, a pregnancy and an affair in the various alternatives.
The blending of the uniqueness with a blockbuster feel is the real key to the films success. This makes it accessible to a very wide audience, including those who normally shy away from anything with subtitles. In this sense, it is a very important film as, for some, it could be the way in to a completely new world of cinema.
A very well thought out piece of cinema, fantastically shot, with an excellent story. AH
Film: The Bridge
Release date: 5th April 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 100 mins
Director: Wolfgang Panzer
Starring: Franka Potente, Francois Goeske, Lars Steinhofel
Genre: War/Drama
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Germany
The 1929 novel All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and its subsequent film adaptations, most notably Lewis Mileston’s 1930 Best Picture winning effort told the story of the loss of innocence and the realisation of the true nature of life on the front lines from the perspective of drafted idealistic German school boys. Convinced by their elders that serving in the infantry for the fatherland is the most noble and honourable path to take, the young protagonists embark on a harrowing journey until their inevitable yet glorious end. The Bridge, a 2008 made-for-TV movie directed by Wolfgang Panzer, is a direct remake of a 1959 film of the same name by Bernhard Wicki. They both draw heavy inspiration from that highly influential text that was once banned by the Nazi’s. However, Panzer’s film largely fails to provoke the same emotional response, and comes across more as a plagiaristic imitation than the affectionate homage it clearly intended to be.
The setting is transported to rural Germany just as the final days of the Second World War are fast approaching. The American troops are on the advance, and morale within the military has crumbled beyond repair. Once indoctrinated, our heroes are not sent to the invading front lines, but are enlisted to secure the titular bridge of their local town, defending a pivotal position and supply route, preventing the Americans the opportunity to advance…
The plot itself, simplistic as it is, is fairly solid. It is a believable tale which has good intentions of portraying the desperation felt by Hitler’s forces as they know defeat is imminent.
Taken at face value, The Bridge is a perfectly serviceable piece of escapist afternoon entertainment, but with serious subject matter comes a certain amount of responsibility and maturity, which the film never realises. It is naive in its convictions, and suffers from an overwhelming amount of clichés. A love story sub plot distracts from the action, and is played out with such bile inducing melodrama that you almost wish the Americans would hurry up and get their invasion over with. Elsewhere, the token fat kid struggles to follow orders and is predictably the first to go.
When the Americans finally arrive, melodrama turns into unintentional comedy, as the soldiers shout orders at each other in bad accents and perform some of the worst choreographed stunts ever seen in a WW2 film. Cheap pyrotechnics explode, blood that closely resembles Ribena squash spurts, and emotionally manipulative death scenes all contribute to a chaotic comedic mess.
The one saving grace of this film is the always reliable Franka Potente, returning to home produced efforts after her brilliant star turn in Che and the Bourne films. Playing the promiscuous school teacher indulging in an affair with one of her students, Potente brings a touch of professionalism and quality in a film dominated by weak performances from the supporting cast of SS officers to the lead roles of our heroes in the Hitler youth.
There is an underlying problem both in the script and the acting - the lack of range of character personalities on display seriously detracts from any sense of realism, and as a result, this tears down any empathy for these people unlike in previous German contributions to the genre, such as Das Boot or Downfall where we can see the real individuals underneath the uniform. Whether for good or evil, we at least understand their machinations. The Bridge has no such complexity and centres around a bunch of one dimensional caricatures that have no relation to the real lives that experienced these events. Typically for a German production, the film also shies away from tackling the true atrocities inflicted on the world by the Nazi’s and the axis. The concentration camp at Dachau is mentioned when Potente’s character is condemned to serve punishment there, but the notion is never explored and soon forgotten when she unconvincingly escapes her captors. With the exception of a valiant few, there seems to be an understandable trend in the national ideology to avoid the issue of genocide on film.
Cultural differences, ideologies and elements lost in translation, not withstanding it is clear that it is unfair though to compare The Bridge to something like Downfall with its large budget and cast of high profile German stars. It is undeniably an inferior piece, but with a slightly inflated budget, and a little more creative thought, it could have gotten closer to attaining its ambitious aspirations. An admirable failure. AB
