This week in class, we watched a few films. The screening we had for this week was Run Lola Run. Run Lola Run is a 1998 German thriller film. It was written and directed by Tom Tykwer. The budget was $1.75 million and box office was $22.9 million.This film was about a woman who needs to find 100,000 Deutsche Mark in twenty minutes to save her boyfriend’s life. Run Lola Run was screened at the Venice Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Lion. It was nominated as Best film at the Seattle International Film Festival and seven awards at the German Film Awards. Run Lola Run was also selected as the German entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards, even though it was not nominated.
The movie starts off with a call made by Lola’s boyfriend, Manny. He was responsible for delivering 100,000 Deutsche Mark. While Manni was on the subway to drop off the bag with money, he panicked when he saw the ticket inspectors and left the money bag on the train while he got off. The last thing he saw was a homeless man examining the money bag as the train departed. Manni told Lola that he will be killed if he doesn’t get that money in twenty minutes and he was talking about robbing a nearby supermarket to secure the funds. Lola told Manni to wait for her. She will find a way to get the money to him within 20 minutes. Lola hangs up the phone and ran all the way to her bank manager father for help. When she gets to the bank, she interrupted a conversation her father was having with his mistress, who informs him that she is pregnant. Her father kicked her out and told her she wasn’t his daughter and he did not help her. Lola ran to meet Manni, and it was too late. She saw him enter the supermarket with a gun. She helped him rob the market. After leaving the supermarket, they got caught by the cops, Manni throws the money bag in the air, which startles a police officer who shoots Lola in the chest.
I thought the movie ended at that point, but then they showed a flashback and then the events of the film restarted from the moment Lola leaves her house. This time it had a different turn out. Manni had gotten ran over by a speeding ambulance. The film restarted one more time. This time, Lola wanders into a casino where she acquires a 100-mark chip she successfully bets on a game of roulette. She bets all of her earnings on the same number and wins the game, getting well over 100,000 marks. Manni then spots the homeless man passing with the money bag, and was able to retrieve it. Lola arrives on time and witnesses Manni handing over the money. Manni joins Lola, and asks her what is in the bag. I was happy that he film had a happy ending.
Also for the reading this week in the World Cinema book, Chapter 22 speaks on New German Cinema. The New German Cinema is a collective term used to describe a group of young film-makers who, under the leadership of Alexander Kluge, signed the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962. In the manifesto they declared that the conventional German film industry was dead, and that a new German film was about to be born. The decline of the old film industry was in part brought about by the rapid rise of television during the 1960’s in West Germany and the loss of film distribution in Germany to American companies during the 1950s. With the loss of audiences to television and American films, the hope of the young filmmakers was to set out to emulate the French New Wave directors and find new methods of financing, producing and exhibiting their films.
I can honestly say that I really enjoyed this class. It’s a bittersweet moment that this has came to an end. I have learned a lot from this course. I do not watch old films on a regular. The only film that I knew that we watched was Bonnie and Clyde. I’ve heard people talking about this a lot and one day I decided to watch it on my own. I wanted to see for myself what this was about. It tells a story about a couple who was down for each other since the day that they met. Even though Clyde was a criminal, Bonnie followed him and turned into one. They did everything together after they met. Down to the day that they died together. I loved this movie because this is the kind of relationship that I would like to be in, excluding the criminal activities. I also love that we have screenings every Wednesday. This gave us a chance to see the kinds of things regarding film industry has been doing. We started watching films from the 1920s , such as A Trip To The Moon to Sunrise. Then to the 1930s where we watched Grand Hotel. When we got to the 1970s, we watched a movie called, The Poseidon Adventure. That was also another good film that I enjoyed. The class had took a vote on that one. The professor told us to choose the film that we haven’t yet watched. I wanted to vote for Jaws because I have seen it and I love Shark movies but I said The Poseidon Adventure. We picked a good choice because we all loved it at the end. Even though there were events that happened that we did not want to happen. We went through all the 90s up to the 21st century, which we will get to next week.
I am happy that I had the chance to take this class. It has opened my eyes to watched things that I’m not really used to watching. I am more caught up with current movies that are showing. I see the previews on television ahead of time and I would think to myself, “I want to see that.”
History of the Motion Picture 