43-428: Tom Tykwer ( German: [ˈtɪkvɐ] ; born 23 May 1965) is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing the thriller films Run Lola Run (1998), Heaven (2002), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), and The International (2009). He collaborated with The Wachowskis as co-director for the science fiction film Cloud Atlas (2012) and
86-434: A bag containing 129,600 marks and runs to Manni's rendezvous. Manni spots the homeless man from the subway passing by on a bicycle with the money bag. Manni steals back the bag at gunpoint, exchanging his gun. A dishevelled and perspiring Lola arrives to witness Manni handing off the money to Ronnie. As the pair walk along, Manni casually asks Lola about her bag. The film touches on themes such as free will vs. determinism ,
129-436: A bank manager, for help. Lola hangs up and runs down the staircase of her apartment building past a man with a dog. At the bank, her father is conversing with his mistress, who discloses her pregnancy. When Lola arrives, her conversation with her father turns into an argument. He tells her that he is leaving her mother and that Lola is not his biological daughter. Lola runs to meet Manni but arrives too late and sees him entering
172-609: A bungling and fairly ineffective lover to a man in control of the situation". O'Sickey makes the claim that this deflates Lola's heroine status in the final act. The film has drawn numerous comparisons to Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski 's Blind Chance (1982), which also features three scenarios, the outcome of which depends on split-second timing. After Kieślowski's death, Tykwer would go on to direct his planned next film, Heaven . Run Lola Run features two allusions to Alfred Hitchcock 's film Vertigo . Like that film, it features recurring images of spirals , such as
215-613: A film director. The trio gave themselves the name "Pale 3", and it originally worked as a film scoring group, then expanding to produce music unrelated to film. Both Tykwer's directing and his musical contributions have received accolades. Other roles In 2009, Tykwer signed a petition in support of film director Roman Polanski , calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse case . Run Lola Run Run Lola Run ( German : Lola rennt , lit. ' Lola Runs ' )
258-499: A local arthouse cinema in order to see more films, including those for which he was too young to buy tickets. After graduating from high school, he applied to numerous film schools around Europe, unsuccessfully. Tykwer moved to Berlin where he worked as a projectionist . In 1987, at the age of 22, he became the programmer of the Moviemento cinema and became known to German directors as a film buff. In Berlin, Tykwer met and befriended
301-464: A seemingly minor decision: one in which the protagonist hesitates for a fellow pedestrian, and the delay causes her to miss a subway train; and another where she sidesteps the pedestrian and catches the train. The soundtrack, by Tykwer, Johnny Klimek , and Reinhold Heil , includes numerous musical quotations of the sustained string chords of The Unanswered Question , an early 20th-century chamber ensemble work by American composer Charles Ives . In
344-448: A supernatural awareness of the characters. For example, in the first reality, Manni shows a nervous Lola how to use a gun by removing the safety, while in the second timeline she removes the safety as though she remembers what to do. This suggests that she might have the memory of the events depicted in the previous timeline. Also, the bank's guard says to Lola "you finally came" in the third timeline, as if he remembered Lola's appearances in
387-525: A video game also released in 2000. The movie has been referenced in various animated series, including the 2001 The Simpsons episode " Trilogy of Error ", the 2011 Phineas and Ferb episode "Run, Candace, Run" , and a 2021 Pinky and the Brain segment of Animaniacs called "Run Pinky Run". Stan Rogow , the executive producer of the Disney Channel original teen comedy Lizzie McGuire , stated
430-571: Is a 1998 German experimental thriller film written and directed by Tom Tykwer . The story follows a woman named Lola ( Franka Potente ) who needs to obtain 100,000 Deutsche Mark in twenty minutes to save the life of her boyfriend Manni ( Moritz Bleibtreu ). Run Lola Run screened at the Venice Film Festival , where it competed for the Golden Lion . Following its release, the film received critical acclaim and several accolades, including
473-430: Is not the father of her unborn child. A furious Lola overhears the conversation, grabs a security guard's gun, holds her father hostage and robs the bank of 100,000 marks. When police mistake her for a bystander, she is able to leave and meet with Manni in time and stop him from robbing a supermarket, but a speeding ambulance that Lola had distracted moments earlier fatally runs him over. Events begin again. Lola leaps over
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#1732859344762516-406: Is often recognized. The film's exploration of the relationship between chance and conscious intention comes to the foreground in the casino scene, where Lola appears to defy the laws of chance through sheer force of will, improbably making the roulette ball land on her winning number with the help of a glass-shattering scream. The thematic exploration of free will vs. determinism is made clear from
559-471: Is passionate filmmaking at its best. One of the best foreign films, heck, one of the best films I have seen", while Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Chicago Reader stated, "About as entertaining as a no-brainer can be—a lot more fun, for my money, than a cornball theme-park ride like Speed , and every bit as fast moving. But don't expect much of an aftertaste." As of October 2024 , the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 93% of critics gave
602-531: The Netflix series Sense8 (2015–2018), and worked on the score for Lana Wachowski's The Matrix Resurrections (2021). Tykwer is also well known as the co-creator of the internationally acclaimed German television series Babylon Berlin (2017–). Tykwer was born in Wuppertal , West Germany . Fascinated by film from an early age, he started making amateur Super 8 films at the age of eleven. He later helped out at
645-457: The screenplay for, and directed, his first feature film, the psychological thriller Deadly Maria (1993). It aired on German television and had a limited theatrical release in Germany and the international film festival circuit. In 1994, Tykwer founded the production company X Filme Creative Pool with Stefan Arndt , Wolfgang Becker , and Dani Levy . Tykwer and Becker wrote the screenplay for
688-583: The 1999 Sundance Film Festival , Best Film at the Seattle International Film Festival , and seven separate awards at the German Film Awards . Lola Rennt was ranked number 86 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010. It was also nominated for the Golden Lion at the 55th Venice International Film Festival , and a European Film Award in 1998. Run Lola Run
731-672: The Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival , Best Film at the Seattle International Film Festival , and seven awards at the German Film Awards . It was also selected as the German entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards , though it was not ultimately nominated. Manni, a bagman responsible for delivering 100,000 Deutsche Mark , frantically calls his girlfriend Lola. Manni says that he
774-575: The Spirale bar behind Manni's phone box, the spiral staircase Lola runs down, and the spirals on the bedsheet. In addition, the painting on the back wall of the casino of a woman's head seen from behind is based on a shot in Vertigo : Tykwer disliked the empty space on the wall behind the roulette table and commissioned production designer Alexander Manasse to paint a picture of Kim Novak as she appeared in Vertigo . Manasse could not remember what she looked like in
817-508: The US box office, and elevated Tykwer to international fame. As Lola was becoming a success worldwide, Tykwer was already at work on his next film, The Princess and the Warrior (2000), a love story about a nurse and a former soldier, which was shot in his home town of Wuppertal. Miramax produced his next film, Heaven (2002), based on a screenplay by Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski , which
860-422: The comedy Life Is All You Get (1997), while working on Winter Sleepers (1997), Tykwer's second feature and a much bigger and more complex production than Deadly Maria . Winter Sleepers brought Tykwer to the attention of German cineastes and film festivals , but he was struggling financially. His next feature film, Run Lola Run (1998), became the most successful German film of 1998, earned $ 7 mln at
903-411: The end of the first "episode", the bedside questioning by Lola reveals her dissatisfaction with the relationship, leading Manni to ask "Do you want to leave me?". O'Sickey makes the argument that each repeated return to the day is driven by Lola's continual attempt to adjust Manni's timing. The entirety of the film portrays Lola as "postmodern heroine who could leap over traditional time-constraints" giving
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#1732859344762946-412: The expectation that she ultimately would get what she wants. By the third arrival in the film, O'Sickey argues that "Lola not only loses her super heroine status, but her desire to desire". She claims the ending portrays "the tradition of classical Hollywood cinema's economy of desire". With Manni having reacquired the money, Lola's desire to be "in sync" disappears as she watches Manni's "metamorphosis from
989-540: The film Pink Children (2012) together with 4 German directors about their mentor Rosa von Praunheim . Tykwer's next film was Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), an adaptation of the novel Perfume by the German novelist Patrick Süskind . It was filmed in the Spanish cities of Figueras , Girona and Barcelona . Tykwer later made his Hollywood debut with the big-budgeted 2009 conspiracy thriller The International , starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts , which
1032-568: The film as having "generally favourable reviews". The film was the highest-grossing German film released in 1998 with a gross of $ 13.8 million. It grossed $ 8.1 million in the United States and Canada and $ 23.7 million worldwide. The film was nominated for dozens of awards, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language . It won several, including the Audience Award at
1075-403: The film positive reviews based on 91 reviews, with an average rating of 7.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "More fun than a barrel of Jean-Paul Sartre, pic's energy riffs on an engaging love story and really human performances while offering a series of what-ifs and a blood-stirring soundtrack." On Metacritic , the film has an average score of 77 out of 100, based on 29 reviews, stating
1118-399: The film was re-released in 4k in select United States theaters. A Hindi remake titled Looop Lapeta was released on Netflix on 4 February 2022. True (film) True is a 2004 short film directed by Tom Tykwer , starring Natalie Portman and Melchior Beslon. The film was filmed for 2006 anthology film Paris, je t'aime . On February 6, 2004, it independently premiered at
1161-461: The film, as is the opening scene of Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode " Beneath You ", where a pink-haired girl is seen running through a German street to techno music reminiscent of the movie. The music video for "Happy Homemaker" by Canadian singer Melanie Doane is also an homage to the film. The film was the initial inspiration for the three-day cycle in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask ,
1204-496: The film; therefore, he decided to paint the famous shot of the back of her head. The painting took fifteen minutes to complete. The bed sheets in the red scenes also feature spiral designs which add to the allusion. The Lola character is often compared to the Lara Croft character of the 1996 video game Tomb Raider . Coincidentally, the film Sliding Doors (also released in 1998) follows two timelines which diverge based on
1247-609: The filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim , who urged him to create stories from his own experience. He suggested, for example, that Tykwer record arguments with his girlfriend, and turn them into a short film . Because (1990) was screened at the Hof International Film Festival and well received by the audience, which inspired Tykwer to continue pursuing filmmaking. He made a second short film , Epilog (1992), for which he took on personal financial debt, but he also gained valuable technical film making experience. Tykwer wrote
1290-546: The man and his dog, arriving at the bank earlier but not triggering an auto accident as she did the first two times. Consequently, her father's customer arrives before her and leaves with her father. Lola now wanders aimlessly before entering a casino , where she hands over all her cash and plays roulette with a 100-mark chip. She bets it on the number 20, which wins. Roulette pays 35 to 1, so she wins 3,500 more marks, which she immediately adds to her original chip on 20. She now shrilly screams, and 20 comes up again. She leaves with
1333-498: The original work, the chords are meant to represent "the Silences of the Druids —who Know, See and Hear Nothing". The techno soundtrack established dialectical relation between motifs of the movie: Rhythm , Repetition , and Interval among various spatio-temporal logics. This produces unification of contradictions like Time and Space or The cyclical and the linear . Run Lola Run
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1376-402: The present and potential futures in those realities. The film ultimately seems to favor a compatibilist philosophical view to the free will question as evidenced by the casino scene and by the final telephone booth scene in which the blind woman redirects Manni's attention to a passerby, which enables him to make an important choice near the film's climax. Several moments in the film allude to
1419-531: The previous two. The theme of desire is expressed through the film as a driving force for Lola's actions. In Ingebord Majer O'Sickey's essay "Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets (Or Does She?): Time and Desire in Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run" she argues that "what Lola really wants is to get into time sync with Manni in sexual terms". The conflict in the plot is driven by the initial phone conversation following Lola being late, leading to their timing to be out of sync. After
1462-446: The role of chance in people's destiny, and obscure cause-effect relationships. Through brief flash-forward sequences of still images, Lola's fleeting interactions with bystanders are revealed to have surprising and drastic effects on their future lives, serving as concise illustrations of chaos theory 's butterfly effect , in which minor, seemingly inconsequential variations in any interaction can blossom into much broader results than
1505-407: The screenplay; set in 1920s Berlin, the series comprised 16 episodes in its first two seasons. A third season premiered in 2020. Later on, in 2023, the fifth season has been announced. In 2018, Tykwer headed the 68th Berlinale . Since Winter Sleepers , the music for all of Tykwer's films (with the exception of Heaven ) has been composed by Johnny Klimek , Reinhold Heil , and Tykwer, unusual for
1548-485: The start. In the film's brief prologue, an unseen narrator asks a series of rhetorical questions that prime the audience to view the film through a metaphysical lens touching on traditional philosophical questions involving determinism vs. philosophic libertarianism as well as epistemology . The theme is reinforced through the repeated appearance of a blind woman who briefly interacts with Manni in each alternative reality, and seems to have supernatural understandings of both
1591-452: The supermarket with a gun. She helps him rob 100,000 marks but on leaving, they find the place surrounded by police. Surrendering, Manni throws the money bag into the air, which startles a police officer who accidentally shoots Lola dead. Events restart from the moment Lola leaves the house. This time, the man with the dog deliberately trips her, and she runs with a limp and arrives late to the bank, allowing her father's mistress to add that he
1634-464: The visual design of the show was inspired by Run Lola Run , specifically mentioning Lizzie's animated persona. The series SMILF includes a 2017 episode ("Run, Bridgette, Run or Forty-Eight Burnt Cupcakes & Graveyard Rum") which references the film. The music video for " Walk Me to the Bridge " (2014) by Manic Street Preachers directly references the movie. For the its 25th anniversary in 2024,
1677-431: Was filmed in and around Berlin, Germany. In contrasting reviews at the time of the film's release, Film Threat ' s Chris Gore said of the film, "[It] delivers everything great foreign films should—action, sex, compelling characters, clever filmmaking, it's unpretentious (a requirement for me) and it has a story you can follow without having to read those annoying subtitles. I can't rave about this film enough—this
1720-459: Was riding the U-Bahn to drop off the money and fled upon seeing ticket inspectors, before realizing that he had left the money bag behind; he saw a homeless man examining it as the train pulled away. Manni's boss Ronnie will kill him in 20 minutes unless he has the money, so he is preparing to rob a nearby supermarket to replace the funds. Lola implores Manni to wait for her and decides to ask her father,
1763-420: Was selected as the German entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards , but not ultimately nominated. The film was released on DVD on 21 December 1999 and on Blu-ray on 19 February 2008. The music video for " It's My Life " by Bon Jovi , released in 2000, was inspired by the film. The music video for " Ocean Avenue " by Yellowcard is also seen by some to have been inspired by
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1806-693: Was shot in English, starred Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi , and was filmed in Turin and Tuscany . Tykwer was approached by French producers to film a short contribution to Paris, je t'aime (2006), a film composed of 20 short films by many famous directors depicting love in Paris. Tykwer shot the 10-minute short film, True , with Natalie Portman and Melchior Beslon. He shot the film quickly with almost no pre-production. The result, Tykwer later said, "symbolises an entire life for me, in just ten minutes." Tykwer shot
1849-448: Was shot in several locations ranging from Berlin, Milan, New York City, and Istanbul. The film received a lukewarm reception from the public and critics alike. Tykwer directed 2016's A Hologram for the King , starring Tom Hanks and Sarita Choudhury , based on a novel by American novelist Dave Eggers . In 2017, Tykwer co-created the television series Babylon Berlin , directing and writing
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