Run Lola Run (1998)

Run Lola Run (1998), directed by Tom Tykwer.

And run she does! Not jogging but full out sprinting through Berlin in long pants and boots throughout the picture.

Lola gets a frantic call from her loser boyfriend. He has lost a bag of money on the subway and if he can't come up with 100,000 DM in 20 minutes he is a dead man and buggered to boot.

How is she going to save him? Thus begins her frantic odyssey through the multiverse (some of it animated) as she tries three different alternate realities, encountering death and cruel life, and altering the life-lines of everyone she bumps into.

Her running is driven by a techno beat with this magic chant:

I wish I was a hunter in search of different food
I wish I was the animal which fits into that mood
I wish i was a person with unlimited breath
I wish I was a heartbeat that never comes to rest
I wish I was a stranger who wanders down the sky
I wish I was a starship in silence flying by
I wish I was a princess with armies at her hand
I wish I was a ruler who'd make them understand
I wish I was a writer who sees what's yet unseen
I wish i was a prayer expressing what I mean
I wish I was a forest of trees that do not hide
I wish I was a clearing no secrets left inside

I don't know what Lola sees in Manni but love is (a) inexplicable and (b) stronger than reality. In fantasy, at least.

This is a worthwhile 80 minutes. A funny bit (among many): Lola encounters her father and his pregnant mistress. Their scenes are done with a video camera making it look very much like soap opera.

Available on Blu-ray with both the original German and an English dub track. Director Tykwer and Franka Potente ("Lola") provide a happy, informative commentary track, pointing out many details I did not notice.

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