Reviews

The idea behind this short film is breathtakingly simple yet its execution by Krzysztof Kieślowski is truly masterful. Each time I watch this documentary I am experiencing a profound sense of being close, touchingly close to another human's heart.

Tender, human dimension of many of these strangers, young, elderly, and some very old, highly educated, and some plain simple -- yet all of them so genuine, so real, and dignified, as never any actor could possibly be, makes me want to embrace many of them and say: "You are my dear brother, you are my beloved sister."

This work of Kieślowski demonstrates perhaps better than ever that the Polish film director first of all was interested in what was Genuine, what was Profound, what was True and Essential. A master of human heart, of human soul, and of camera.

As has been frequently noted, and nobody seems to deny that, the main concept of 'Run, Lola, Run' is taken straight from Kieślowski's 'Blind chance' (Przypadek, 1981), including some very minor details. But this is where all the similarities between these two films end.

Kieślowski's masterpiece tells three variants of the same story, all three beginning exactly in the same way with a frantic run by the main protagonist. All three are literally oversaturated with deep contents and meaning, each segment easily offering more to the viewer than most film directors are capable to convey throughout all of their cinematic careers. It is like watching in one sitting three parts of 'The Decalogue' acted by the same actors. Except that 'The Decalogue' is generally purer and leaner (not to be meant as a criticism).

In comparison, Tykwer's three variants of the same story have nearly no contents, and even less meaning. Compared to Kieślowski's real human beings who live their real lives through deep existential and moral dilemmas, pondering on the meaning of things, on the consequences of actions they take, Tykwer's characters are like colorful plastic bags: beautiful on the outside, and absolutely no contents left in them. They have as much depth and truth in themselves as characters of comic books.

Paradoxically, this may be exactly what Tom Tykwer wanted to portray: how shallow and vacuous is modern western society today. He found a very effective way to convey this idea by his very entertaining use of comic books imagery, pop-art techniques, and techno-pop rhythms. And he does so with a great technical skill.

For many viewers hooked primarily on a gripping sequence of images (as was calculated by somebody, the film contains 1581 transitions in the span of only 81 minutes which leads to an average shot length of 3 seconds!) the deeper message of Tykwer's film may be obfuscated. But this inescapable reflection will dawn on a careful viewer when the film is over: do we really want to live as a comic book characters?

'Run, Lola, Run' has been often criticized as 'thin', 'shallow', containing 'cheap existentialism', 'overrated'. While it is easy to see what causes such criticisms, the critics may be missing that this is perhaps not be considered a shortcoming of the film but rather one of its strengths.

And indeed, this film as a whole, besides its undeniable entertaining value, may be offering us a remarkably accurate glimpse of the current state of the western society, oblivious to its own progressing cultural degradation and spiritual deprivations.

You will be disappointed by Tykwer's film only if you come to it expecting, by association with Kieślowski's name, something serious, profound, and deeply moving. On its own terms, as a comic book pastiche, Tykwer's art is first class.

Visually the most appealing are the sequences that show Lola running. Perhaps, the only scenes when she is indeed beautiful, beautiful as a human being. In my opinion, the film stands on these scenes. Fortunately, there are very many throughout the film.