Run Lola Run ( 1998)
• This film explores the idea of fate and the control we obtain over our lives, specifically focusing on the detail of each decision we make. The film follows the character Lola who has half an hour to find 100,000 DM for her boyfriend before he robs a supermarket or is killed by the drug dealers he owes money to. It focuses particularly on the exact decisions she makes and how these down to almost the seconds ultimately change not only her life drastically but all those around her. The film centres on three different alternatives, where each time Lola does something slightly different and this leads her to have a completely different ‘run’ which in turn changes the outcome of her story.
How is it Postmodern?
• The whole film dismisses modernist ideas about the ‘unified self’ as Lola continuously redefines herself, in pursuit for a different ending to her and Manny’s story. Therefore the film plays with the idea of fragmentation and an almost ‘decentred self’- she has no permanent identity because she is able to change and control things in her life we are unable to.
• Hyper-reality is evident in the film as as an audience we are at times unable to distinguish the reality from fantasy, the narrative itself playing with this whole idea- this links to the overall idea of a decay in boundaries/ structure.
• The film features intertexuality for example when Lola is in the casino she screams like Oskar in the tin drum- this being the first post war German film to win an Oscar- as she smashes the glass she also shatters realism. Not having to depend on weapons or her father, she has learned to trust herself and uses her voice to stop the wheel of time and the roulette wheel to win the money- this links to postmodern rejection of science and technology as she does it singlehandedly on her own. Also It takes her twenty minutes and she bets everything on the number 20, this has a direct reference to time which is constant theme throughout the film.
• The generic happy ending idea is also subverted, we know we are unable to trust the characters walking of together because things can change dramatically in an instant therefore their happiness isn’t secure.
