Lola Rennt: The Importance of Individual Choice

Every second of every day we are faced with decisions that can potentially impact the course of our lives. What street we chose to walk down or who we chose to talk to has a domino effect that is not immediately visible or present. How we move through time and space can change the course of our lives in an instant. Fate, a seemingly weighted concept, is supposedly set out for us the second we’re born. There can be no revisions or alterations. In the 1998 film Lola Rennt, directed by Tom Tykwer, the protagonist needs to get 100,000 Deutschmarks in 20 minutes and goes through three different potential outcomes. With a combination of animation, fast paced images, action shots, and techno music, Lola Rennt tells a different story of how fate can be reworked and how a single interaction can redetermine the course of one’s life. The fast paced tempo and multidimensional structure of the film allows us to rethink the concept of time as precious.

In Tykwer’s Lola Rennt, the audience is pulled through a fast paced adventure when Lola’s boyfriend Manni loses 100,000 Deutschmarks on a subway in Berlin. In the beginning of the film, Lola explains that the reason she wasn’t there in time to pick Manni up is because she decides to stop and buy cigarettes(0:5:17). During this time her moped gets stolen and therefore she can’t make it to Manni in time. If Lola hadn’t stopped for cigarettes she would have had her moped and been able to make it to him in time. At 0:11:00, Lola’s tv shows dominoes lined up in a squiggly line falling over. Right off the bat, we see how a seemingly minor decision will set the course for the entire film. A domino effect is obviously represented here because If she didn’t stop she wouldn’t be running and there would be no purpose for the film.

As she runs through the city, she interacts with several, seemingly random, people. In the first iteration, Lola bumps into a woman pushing a stroller(0:13:04). Then the audience is shown a series of polaroid pictures, quickly flashing one after the next, that unravel the future course of this woman’s life based on her interaction with Lola. In the first series of images, the woman’s baby dies and so she steals a baby and ends up in jail. In the second iteration, Lola still bumps into her but not as much and the series of images shows the woman winning the lottery(0:36:19). In the final iteration, Lola does not come into physical contact with the woman and she ends up leading a religious life(0:55.50). Why these outcomes unravel they way they do boils down to Lola’s actions. Through these encounters we see how the fate of humans are random, chaotic, endlessly repetitive, while at the same time utterly different.

Lola Rennt is constantly reminding the audience how even the slightest movement or interaction can be exponential in determining the fate of one’s life. The concept of the “Butterfly Effect” depicts the equilibrium between organization and chaos. The term “Butterfly Effect” is a concept accidentally invented by meteorologist Edward Lorenz in 1959. In 1972 he gave a talk titled “Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set a Tornado in Texas?” Lorenz was not claiming that the question posed had an affirmative answer, rather he was looking at separate weather patterns and questioning if different smaller actions could affect the weather in the long run. K.K. Tung writes, Lorenz discovered this ‘chaotic’ behavior in 1959 when he was numerically integrating a truncated model of weather [...] On this one occasion he wanted to examine more closely a particular segment of the printed output of a previous run. He thought he could restart the run in the middle by typing into the computer the model output as the initial condition. To his surprise he found that the restarted run diverged from the original run (Tung 215). This concept of one small action setting off a chain of events is a real world phenomenon that can be applied to everyday life outside of mathematics. From Lorenz’s work, we can conclude that science can not always predetermine the course of one’s life or even a simple rainfall. Similar to Lorenz’s experiment, depending on how Lola interacts with the interferences, the outcome of her run will be completely different. The highly complex and intricate sequence of events that make up the fabric of our universe is extremely sensitive and Lola Rennt highlights the fragility of our actions.

The structure of the film is essential to understanding the vital concepts of fate and time. At the very beginning of the film we hear a ticking and then see a pendulum swaying back and forth. The viewer then enters the mouth of a gargoyle clock and the movie begins. This literal signifier of time anticipates the themes of time and chance encounters. We are told that the “ball is round, the game lasts 90 minutes. That’s clear enough. Everything else is theory.” The effect of this intro is that, we as the audience are critical of how we spend our own time and that a multitude of possibilities are available in just twenty minutes. We are at the edge of our seats, ready to see how the movie will unfold. We know it will be fast paced and short in length. The film is also divided into three sections, just like a game of soccer, which sets the pace for the film. There’s a goal: to reach Manni in time with the money. There are obstacles: every person she interacts with along the way. Time is portrayed as a mechanism for repetition. While we are posed with philosophical questions at the beginning, there is no time to think too deeply about these issues. The film is primarily filled with action and there is very little rest throughout the movie. The few breaks we receive occur in between each new rendition and serve as a moment of rest throughout the frenzy. In these interludes, Manni and Lola are in bed naked, smoking cigarettes, discussing their feelings for each other and what they would do if the other died. Stephen Brockman writes, Whereas inside the macro-sequences Lola and Manni usually appear to be at the mercy of fate and spurred on by events outside of their control, in these interludes the lovers appear to be enjoying themselves and each other, as well as their own stories. They are, in a sense, consumers of their own fate(Brockman 463).

These moments of rest show us that, throughout the random and hecticness of life, there are some constants. In these intimate encounters, which suspend time and space, Lola is able to work through the mistakes made in the previous round and apply them to the next. For each iteration, Lola learns the “rules” of the game and is able to overcome obstacles based on the last run through. For example, at the end of the first interlude, the camera zooms in on Lola’s eyes and we see her lying on the ground, dead. We then see the red bag of money fly into the air and after she commands it to “stop”, the red bag morphs into the ringing telephone at the beginning of the second macro sequence. Through these moments of reflection, Lola is able to work through the mistakes in previous rounds to succeed. In an interview with the director from 1999, Tykwer says,”you have to challenge coincidence, and there is a path to take. All odds are against Lola, and at the end, it shows it’s not by chance that she changes fate, it’s really her passionate, possessive desire to change the system that she is stuck in. And the system is time.” Although fate may seem solely random, by the end of the film, it is Lola’s purposeful decisions that let her change the fatal outcome. In addition, the repetitiveness of Lola’s running creates a sense of imprisonment; she is unable to escape the chase until the very end. Each rendition shows the audience a different outcome even if certain elements remain the same throughout. For example, at 0:55:16, Lola jumps over the dog that tripped her in the second episode which affected her running speed and ability to make it to Manni on time. Lola is able to create her own destiny. She is granted second chances that reminds us as the audience to cherish the chance to start again.

Lola Rennt can also be viewed as a film in the form of a video game. At the start of each of Lola’s runs the camera cuts across to a television set and we go through an animated sequence of Lola’s caricature running down the stairs out to the “real world”. In video games, the player is able to revive themselves and keep trying until they win or get the outcome they want. In Lola Rennt, she is able to redo fatal situations until she gets the perfect outcome and “wins” the game. She is quite literally defying death. Lola can be seen as an avatar with specific strengths and weaknesses. Her main mission is to somehow come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks in twenty minutes. At (0:11:11), the camera circles around Lola, as if scanning and assessing her powers. We then see a quick succession of faces, as if we are choosing the most rich and powerful avatar to help her complete the mission; her father. After the first two renditions we learn that simply acquiring the money is not enough to win; they have to keep themselves alive as well. The effect of including animation is that Lola’s character is able to come back to life and rework her own fate. She isn’t just a young woman, but an idea; a representation of a concept. The added animation also clarifies where the story begins and puts us in the perspective of Lola’s character. In addition, the animation elevates the feelings of urgency and reminds the audience that it’s possible to start fresh again.

Along with Lola Rennt’s video game aspect, the city itself is a fictional version of Berlin. The route Lola takes is physically impossible to complete in the time she does. This virtual reality that Lola finds herself in is her own simulation of Berlin; she’s conquering it for herself, making it her own city that she runs and controls. A new Berlin is portrayed here as well, which is representing the new German youth in action. Brockman writes, Just as the fate of its characters are more or less random, chance manifestations of larger forces conceived as eternal and unchanging, so too the Berlin of this movie, with its impossible routes and geographical juxtapositions, is a fundamentally imaginary, random construction based on certain essential principles-principles that include the people who inhabit it and its various locations, however impossible jumbled together(Brockman 465).

Although the history of Berlin and Germany is not essentially elevant for the plot of the film, the image of Lola running in all directions, East and West, represents a free city that embodies movement and progression. A Berlin without borders and walls is portrayed and the film welcomes a new generation of interconnectedness.The rhythm of the film connects with the audience in an impactful way through repetitive techno music, action shots, and fast cutting. Watching Lola run for a good portion of the film, while simultaneously hearing the repetitive techno music, builds tension in the viewer as the boundary between time and space becomes blurred. Katherine Spring writes, “the film illustrates how the systematic layering of instruments over repeated musical figures combine with editing pace in order to guide audience attention and, more importantly, build tension toward a critical moment in the narrative's trajectory.” The elements of audio and image only have the emphatic effect when they are construed together. This layered relationship between the techno music and fast paced visuals conveys the theme of urgency and time as a fleeting concept we must grasp.

When examining the mise en scene in Lola Rennt, I chose a series of shots that, put together, evoke feelings of urgency. From 0:34:40 to 0:35:05, Manni and Lola are in bed, bathed in red, and the camera fades into a shot zooming out from Lola’s eyes as she lays on the ground from the previous run. The red bag of money is in the air and the camera rapidly cuts back and forth from the falling bag to the falling red telephone. The syntagmatic connotation of these series of shots is a sense of urgency to get the money to Manni on time. At the very beginning of the film we are shown a quote form S. Herberger that says, “after the game is before the game”. Showing the phone and the bag back and forth indicates the merging of both the start and end of the round. The color red also implies danger, passion and intensity. The red phone, which is the instrument of communication for Lola to be aware of Manni’s situation, symbolizes the perilous situation he finds himself in. In the interludes of rest, red is the color to symbolize a pause in the action and it also accentuates the intense romance between Manni and Lola. The color red consistently makes an appearance in the film and pops out to the viewer. The first noticeable introduction to the red is Lola’s hair. She personifies the danger and seduction associated with the color. The effect of combining the shots of red items, is the importance of rushing to be on time and the merging of the beginning and end of the runs. The fast paced film Lola Rennt, highlights the importance of our individual choices. Through each rendition, we are reminded that while we are responsible for every moment of our existence, there are some things we can not be in control of. The adrenaline inducing film reminds us that the clock is always ticking and time doesn’t stop for anyone. Through the techno soundtrack, we are provided with the tempo that represents energy and time itself. The gamelike structure overwhelmingly evokes a sense of urgency. Lola Rennt bends and breaks filmic rules that relate to the rules, or lack thereof, of life. Time is slipping between our fingers and it’s easy to become consumed by the clock.