I'm Running...

Run Lola Run, 1998, Germany

Twenty minutes is really not a long time. It often feels like forever to me, especially when I'm feeling anxious about something, but in the grand scheme of things, it's just a few grains of sand in the hourglass known as life.

Lola has twenty minutes to find 100,000 DM, and deliver it to her boyfriend in order to save his life. Twenty minutes to run to where he's located, get the money (somehow) and deliver it. Not a long time, huh?

The film is not a long one, at 81 minutes. But in that time, three different scenarios are played out, each lasting roughly 20 minutes. They sure managed to cram a lot of story in those 20 minutes. Before watching the movie, I was aware that it consisted of three different scenarios, and I was also aware that the film was parodied in an episode of The Simpsons called "Trilogy of Error". In fact, that may have been how I first heard of the movie. I'm vaguely recalling a conversation I had with my Dad way back when the episode first aired, where he told me that it was based on a movie called Run Lola Run.

The purpose of the three scenarios is to show how mere seconds impact events in the rest of your life. Minutes, seconds, can end a life or save a life. I haven't spent much time thinking about it, but I sure am now. Everyone has those days where they get a phone call they've been waiting for all day when they're in the washroom and can't take the call. In the film, one single event at the beginning of each scenario determined whether Lola was delayed by seconds, or faster by seconds, and those seconds matter.

I loved the movie. It was exciting, and made me feel...energized. I was familiar with Tom Tykwer from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, but this is by far the better film. The edits, the soundtrack, the acting, and the story all fit together. Speaking of the soundtrack...it was fantastic. I'm not sure I've ever heard a soundtrack quite like it, but I loved it!

I've got this song stuck in my head as a result of the movie:




In other news, I can't help but wonder what watching 200 movies will do to my figure. I do enjoy a snack while I'm watching a movie, and since I'll be watching roughly one a day, that's a lot of junk food! Perhaps I should make it a goal to adopt better snacking habits over the duration of my IPP?

Does anyone have any healthy snack recommendations? Remember: I am a pathetically bad cook.