Introduction
Run Lola Run is a German film produced in 1998. It was written and directed by the local film director, Tom Tykwer. This film is about a yung woman helping her boyfriend to get 100000 Deutsche Mark in 20 minutes to save his life. The same story is filmed in three alternative timelines in this film with various aesthetic editings, which then will be further analysed in this blog.
Synopsis
The story starts with Lola receiving a call from Manni, telling that the 100000 Deutsche Mark that he needed to deliver was being left in the train. Without this money delivered in the next 20 minutes, Manni will be killed. Because of that Lola asked Manni to wait for her as she will meet him in 20 minutes. In the first timeline, Lola was late with empty hand to meet Manni as he was already robbing the supermarket when she arrived. Then, she was shot by a police officer when she and Manni was surrounded by the police. In the second timeline, Lola made it on time with the money she robbed from her father’s bank. However, Manni was run over by an ambulance when he was approaching Lola on the other side of the road. In the last timeline, Lola reached her destination on time with the money that she won from a casino but Manni was not there at that moment. Manni actually found the homeless man that kept his money and exchange it with his own gun. Lola witnessed Manni delivered the money and none of them was killed in this timeline.
Discussion
This is an interesting film as I never watched a film that repeats a story in three different timelines. Everytime the story is repeated, I always look forward to the differences of the timeline could be as compared the the previous ones. It is boring and annoying for some people to watch the same thing over and over again but I think this is an interesting concept about the butterfly effect. According to Rowley (2004) in urbandictionary.com, the butterfly effect is a scientific theory that a single small occurrence can affect the outcome of the world forever. One of the examples of the film from an article written by Saporito (2015) is the part which Lola bumps into an old lady on the sidewalk. Saporito stated that the frustration of the lady caused by Lola can change her life severely. In the first timeline, Lola hit the lady directly which made her very frustrated. Then, we can see there are several images appear in the frame which shows the impact of Lola’s action towards the future life of the lady. For example in the first timeline, this accident will cause the lady to become alcoholics along with her husband and they lost the guardianship of their child. When Lola hits the woman slightly in the second timeline, we can see that the lady and her husband win the lottery in the future; When Lola avoided the accident in the last timeline, the woman left her family behind in the future and joins the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Therefore, we can see that how the butterfly effect works from this example, which how a small act can actually affect the outcome of the world.
Analysis
Apart from the concept of the butterfly effect, let us see how this film uses the editing techniques. According to Bordwell and Thompson, editing is the coordination of a shot with the next. It involves the integration of separate video footage of a film. It can be achieved by using cut, fade, dissolve or wipe. Most of the filmmakers try to achieve continuity editing so that they could maintain the engagement of viewers with the story. However in Run Lola Run (1998), we can see that the filmmakers are trying to create an alternative continuity editing in some part of the films.
A good way to achieve discontinuity editing is by using jump cuts. According to Hooper (2013), a jumpcut is an instantaneous transition of several shots without continuity. It can be a combination of two sequential shots of the same objects and scene but in different camera position, or the cutting of two sections of a shot from the same camera angle. For instance, we can see that jump cut with a very fast phase is used in the part after Lola hung up the call from Manni at the beginning of the story. I think that this technique can help to increase the tension and make the viewers to feel as nervous as Lola. Besides, we can also see some jump cuts when Lola is running.
Furthermore, non-diegetic insert, which can be described as the addition of footage that is not related to the storyline is also a way to disrupt the continuity of a film. It creates a discontinuity of the film because it breaks the continuous flow of the narrative. For example in this film, Lola encountered many strangers like the old lady, the person on the bike, the staff in the bank, who do not contribute much in Lola’s story. We can see some footage of their future with a very fast jump cuts appear after Lola interact with these people. Those shots do not have any relation with the story but they are not unless as well. These non-diegetic inserts in this film serves the purpose of telling the viewers about the butterfly effect of Lola’s interactions on them.
Time is really important to tell a story, so most filmmakers will often create an editing with temporal continuity to avoid confusion from the audiences. However in this film, temporal discontinuity had been broken for a few times, especially when a timeline is switching to another one. The timeline of the entire film is not in a linear order like any other film because it starts from the beginning to an end, then it switches back to the past when Lola and Manni have their conversation, and start over again from the beginning to another new ending.
Conclusion
Therefore, Run Lola Run (1998) is a good film example to study about discontinuity editing. It is also truly a breathtaking film that shows how a small simple interaction can change the outcome of the world.
References
Bordwell, D & Thompson, K. (2010). Film Art: An Introduction. New York, America: McGraw-Hill.
Hooper, R. (2013). Understanding jump cuts. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/blog/post/understanding-jump-cuts/.
Rowley, J. (2004). Butterfly effect. Retrieved from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=butterfly%20effect.
Saporito, J. (2015). How does “Run Lola Run” demonstrate chaos theory’s butterfly effect. Retrieved from http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-does-run-lola-run-demonstrate-chaos-theorys-butterfly-effect.
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