On its surface, the 1998 German film “Run Lola Run” is an action thriller.
Lola, played by Franka Potente in her breakthrough role, has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks to save her boyfriend Manni’s life. So off she goes, running almost nonstop through Berlin, trying to find a way to get the money, and get to Manni, before the criminal he owes pulls the trigger.
But that’s where the trappings of traditional action films fall away and director Tom Tykwer‘s experimental interests arise. Lola’s run is repeated three times, with a different outcome in each, leaving viewers to ponder such weighty concepts of free will versus fate, and the tiny moments and chance decisions that can change the course of a life or death.
“Run Lola Run” was a surprise hit in the United States, winning the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and accolades at other festivals around the world. Now, in a restored 4K version, it’s headed to the theaters for a 25th-anniversary run starting Friday, June 7, leaving Tykwer and Potente delighted and amazed that their experimental take on a well-worn genre has its own second chance on screen.
“There was this dream of emancipating from story and plot and still making a meaningful film,” Tykwer says of his earliest ideas for the film. “That mostly is driven by the urge of artistic expression, kinetic energy, and emotional intensity.”
In other words, “Run Lola Run” was never going to be about car chases that end in fiery crashes. Which isn’t to say that there isn’t a crash or two, but it’s the magic, not the mayhem, that made the movie special.
Since “Lola,” both Potente and Tykwer have crossed over to international success. Potente’s starring roles include movies such as “Blow,” “The Bourne Identity” and “Che.” Tykwer has directed films such as “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” “Cloud Atlas,” and the TV series “Sense8,” the latter two with his frequent collaborators, the Wachowskis.
In an interview edited for length and clarity, Tykwer and Potente talked about its origins and intentions, the challenge of filming the same 20 minutes three times with subtly different actions and results, and what it was like for Potente, then in her early 20s, to run, run, run one take after another after another.
Q: Franka, what do you remember about the origins of “Run Lola Run”?
Potente: I remember meeting Tom. I hadn’t had that many artistic collaborations. I’d done a handful of movies. But I think what was new was someone letting you in on his thought process in such an immediate way that I was immediately tapping into some kind of creative energy.
I was young, I hadn’t had that much experience, so a lot of the things for me were subconscious. But when that happens, it makes you feel elevated immediately. You’re already so safe in that space. I was able to say yes to everything. I was like, ‘OK, yeah, sure, let’s do that, too,’ because I was not alone.
Q: As an actor, what’s it like to have that kind of collaboration?
Potente: That’s how I entered this project, and it never went away. It’s really a very rare, amazing experience, that goes beyond the labor of work or a movie to just have an experience where you’re so included and so seen without having to prove anything, almost. It’s really a gift, I realized I can have all these years later.
Q: The unique structure of the film with the three different versions of the same events must have presented challenges for you, Tom, as writer and director.
Tykwer: Like any movie, you don’t shoot chronologically. You’re at the places, and then you shoot the three episodes. The bank (where Lola’s father works) was shot in two days, everything that happens in there. Which is hilarious because it’s the same and it isn’t, no? Because everything does these tiny changes.
So you need to really live inside the construct. The references from whatever (timeline) to the other where something could not be a memory. If the time jumps back, for instance, you cannot remember how a gun works now, because it’s in the other time. I do remember that we discussed it like, ‘Well, we live it as one tale, even though it’s starting again and again,’ so it gets wiser along the way, and Lola is growing wisdom when she finds all these incredible, substantial secrets and discoveries about herself.
Q: Three timelines must have meant an incredible amount of literal running for you, Franka.
Potente: I mean, I ran rehearsals, I ran all of the takes. And though we tried with my double, for her to run for sound, we realized that was so different that I had to go back and just do that, too. I was so energized, though. I was like 20-whatever, 22, 23. It’s almost like it was an outlet for me to just get rid of this physical energy, you know? I’m sure it was hot and whatnot. Sometimes my legs hurt or something like that. But it was really not a concern.
It was also like just the way of expression, too, because Lola doesn’t have big monologues all the time. So that was my way of expressing her in this given space in these three (timelines) that were so safely built I just needed to step from one lane to the other between the versions.
Q: Is there a moment in the three timelines that still sticks with you?
Tykwer: To me, one of the magical moments that I’ve remembered is with the bank guard, whose life she saves at the end when she enters the emergency car. I really remember shooting this with Franka. It was one of the most beautiful moments in my life because this thing – movie magic can also be quite shabby, you know.
There are two people outside of a car, they’re making it shake so it feels as if it was driving, but it’s actually totally messy, a little setup, one camera, and it was all non-magical. And I remember looking at the monitor from it and putting on my earphones, and I was in such disbelief on how Franka was focusing this guy and herself in his realm, and making him live again. You can’t even explain that kind of wisdom in Franka.
She just got it. We just knew, ‘OK, she’s God-like here.’
Q: So the collaboration, on all levels, was extraordinarily special on ‘Lola’?
Tykwer: Even though I was the initiator, she joined this little bubble that the people around us also joined. Invincible. It’s an invincible experience of creation that is forever, I think, in our blood, and has given me strength through the rest of my career. I think you see it still; it’s why the movie is still alive and why it’s being released nationwide in the U.S. now. It’s because that’s the thing we want to see when we see art.
And that’s the thing we want to see when we see movies. This kind of miracle that is inexplicable. You know, reality takes off. It’s so wild and it’s so absurd, but we’re lost in it, we lose ourselves in it. It gives us peace and belief.
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