Which genre would you place the film run Lola run into and why Essay Example
Which genre would you place the film run Lola run into and why Essay Example

Which genre would you place the film run Lola run into and why Essay Example

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  • Pages: 4 (1032 words)
  • Published: December 6, 2017
  • Type: Film Analysis
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Run Lola Run is a film in which a young woman (Lola) is given the task of recovering 100,000DM for her boyfriend in a twenty-minute period. If she fails to recover the one hundred thousand in time, her boyfriend fears the mobster will kill him he owes the money to from a robbery.

The film goes on to show three different versions of how she tries to get the money in time with every different action having a different reaction.The film is set out like a computer game in that every time Lola makes a mistake she learns from it on the next run, showing the first section of Lola running down the stairs as a cartoon character is the director's way of enforcing this. In the first film her actions end up with her being shot by

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a police officer after robbing a store. In the second sequence she successfully robs a bank only to see her boyfriend manni get hit by a speeding ambulance and die. In the third film however, even though she wins the money from a casino.

Manni manages to track down the hobo who has the money and recover it, leaving Lola with a spare 100,000DM. Due to the content of the film there is much debate to the question I am attempting to answer: Which genre does run Lola run fall in to? Unlike most Hollywood films which show there genre up blatantly, run Lola run is slightly different. From the opening sequence where Lola appears to be sucked up by time you could be led to think it is a horror film. Although this is not the case,

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there still are two genres, which the film can be placed in to. The two main genres the film is argued over are Action and Romance.

On one hand there is a lot of action going into her attempting to recover the money. But on the other hand she is doing it for her boyfriend whom she loves. The reason people can lay claim to the film being a romance film is all of the love motifs that are in the film. These are the colour red, which is used, and the sound of heartbeats. In the first two sections when either Lola or Manni are almost dead they use flashbacks to show tender scenes on the subject of what has just happened.

To emphasise this feeling of love the scene is done completely in red.Also, whenever a tender moment is shared between any two characters you can hear a heartbeat which is increasing. This can also give the feeling of tension as an increased heartbeat can also mean tense excitement or worry. The film can be seen as quite a classic style romance film if looked at properly I.

E the princes saving the prince. Although people can say it's mainly a romance film, there are many more reasons why it could be just a plain action film with little bits of romance in that aren't big enough to warrant the film being a hybrid-genre.The film moves at a very fast pace and definitely has the feel of an action film all of the way through. The music to go with it is a techno action style, which is used in many of Hollywood's action

films these days and only adds to the feel that the film is an action film. More proof of this is the way that they have used clocks ticking in this film. It helps give the impression that Lola is in a race against time, which is also helped by the title 'Run Lola Run' which will give an audience who hasn't seen or heard of the film before the impression that it is an action film.

The narrative also goes some way into giving you the feel that the film is an action film. It centres on if Lola can beat the clock and save her boyfriend. Another action trait the film has is its clever use of camera angles to portray the general mood of the film and for certain events. When the film shows you the future it does so in clips, when a love scene is being shown the camera turns the whole scene read.

This also happens for major interaction scenes in which the camera wiggles around.For the regular scenes is constantly changing angles. Although I have described the main Genre's people can place the film into, there is still evidence that there could be more genres to the overall hybrid. One of these genres is the thriller genre, which can be given due to the whole race against time scenario. However, I don't personally think of it as a thriller because I feel a thriller has to go into some depth psychologically which run Lola run doesn't do much of.Another example is that people can think it is an art film due to it having English subtitles even in the

German version, which most German films don't have.

This may give the impression that the film is very hard to understand, but actually even without the subtitles the film is quite easy to understand. There isn't that much talk in the film, and when there is the characters tend to use very Americanised German language. In conclusion, I feel this is a very clever film with tons of hidden meaning and symbolism, which is easy to see.In my opinion, you can't describe this film anything other than a hybrid genre. This is a two or more genres mixed into one, in this case it is action and romance.

The film is based on action, but has a lot of hidden love motifs. You could point out that it may have elements of thriller, art or even horror, but these don't stand out enough to warrant becoming part of the hybrid. I also feel that Run Lola Run is especially good as it is one of the few movies these days to successfully make a hybrid of action and romance due to their obvious differences in style.

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