By Todd Garbarini

I have seen a handful of films that are pure cinema, exhilarating in their pacing, scoring, and editing. George Miller’s The Road Warrior (1981), Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996) are a few examples. Tom Tykwer’s feature film Run Lola Run (1998) is no less heart-stopping. Its very premise pits itself against the audience with a high degree of nail-biting scenarios that make us all ponder how we would react if we found ourselves in a similar plight as our onscreen protagonists. The film’s overall theme is about fate and chance and the circumstances that we can find ourselves in when we make one decision over another despite evaluating multiple alternatives. Filmed in the summer of 1997 and released in New York on Friday, June 18, 1999, this German-lensed high energy amalgam of images and impulses boasts a premise that is decidedly simple: small-time hood Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) has just 20 minutes to return 100,000 Deutsche Marks to his boss Ronnie (Heino Ferch) or risk death. Unfortunately, while riding the U-Bahn, a tussle with a homeless man causes Manni to forget the bag of money on the train, leaving him in a horrendous position, and to the delight of the homeless man. Tearfully begging his girlfriend Lola (Franke Potente who starred in the Bourne films opposite Matt Damon), a grey tank-top-sporting twenty-something with firecracker-colored red hair, for help from a phone booth, they panic and strive to figure out how to keep Manni alive.

There are three consecutive scenarios running about 20 minutes each that play out virtually identically and they all involve the same group of individuals, their frantic pace barely coming up for air. However, the circumstances that occur are disparate depending upon how Lola chooses to handle the situation: Lola, on the run to the phone booth, slams into a woman on the street; an ambulance and a pane of glass; and an unannounced visit to her father’s office at a bank in a desperate bid to procure the required cash. At times she is humble, other times she commandeers a security officer’s pistol and forces her father’s hand for the cash. The onscreen action is propelled forward by a highly charged and exceedingly intense techno score by Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek and the director himself, which proves highly effective at conveying Manni and Lola’s desperation. Irony and happenstance figure in the form of a blind woman, portrayed by Moritz Bleibtreu’s real-life mother.

The action stops twice to see flashbacks of the couple in bed following sex, their images and discussions bathed in red light. Even Lola’s phone is red phone and, in a nice nod to the jump cut from the bone to the nuclear weapon in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the red phone and green bag of money are both juxtaposed. It is an exhilarating ride that leaves the audience breathless.

The original DVD was released on December 21,1999, and it was followed up with a standard Blu-ray on February 18, 2008, for the film’s tenth anniversary. The new Sony 4K UHD Blu-ray looks terrific and ports over the original albeit minimal extras, while adding a few more that probably appeared on international Blu-rays of the film:

The first audio commentary is with the director and the film editor Mathilde Bonnefoy. This is spoken in German and there are optional English subtitles for the commentary. They discuss the inspiration and the challenges of making the film, including keeping track of the footage for the three segments.

The second audio commentary is with the director and star Potente, and is thankfully spoken in English with optional English subtitles. It is a fun and spirited conversation that leaves the audience wanting to hear more.

Making-Of (2008) is a featurette that runs 39:30 and includes much in the way of behind-the-scenes as the film was being shot in June 1997. It is spoken in German and has optional English subtitles and features Tom Tykwer, Maria Kopf, Franke Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Frank Griebe, Stefan Arndt, Alexander Manasse, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek, Matthias Lepert, Heino Ferch, Sebastian Schipper, Joachim Krol, and Nina Petri. There is storyboarding, discussions about what it took to follow Lola with the camera, juxtaposing 35mm film with color video and black and white imagery to enunciate different emotions. There is also an amusing anecdote about Lola’s bright hair color inspiring hairstylists in Germany to offer the same, which was adopted by many women.

Still Running (2008) runs (pun intended) 16:58 and primarily features director Tykwer and star Potente in 2007 interviews. He discusses that the film’s genesis is a remake of a short film that he made called Because which is about an argument that goes in three different directions. For Lola, this made filming challenging as even the crew was unable to follow where they were in the script while shooting. It would have been nice if Because had been included on this title’s third outing on disc.

Believe runs 4:10 and is a highly visual music video performed by actress Potente interspersed with the requisite shots from the film.

Run Lola Run is a wild ride and is not to be missed by serious film lovers.