Hallo! Did you watch Run Lola Run this month? Have you seen it before? What do you think? Time for a Run Lola Run discussion.

I’d seen Run Lola Run before, but I figured that after visiting Berlin for the Polyglot Gathering, I would be feeling pretty inspired to get a little more of a Deutsch fix. Yikes. I feel head over heels in love with this film this month. I liked it before, but now I love it. Eww, that’s a gross sentence. I’m sorry. Urgh. Not sure what to replace it with…I’m going to pretend no one noticed.

So why do I like this film so much now? It’s far too smart. In every sense. The whole concept (ok, spoiler, from here on in there’ll be spoilers!) of the three different outcomes altered by three different sets of events is just so intriguing and really makes you think – how much of a say do we have in the way things will turn out? How much is put down to events, however minor they may seem, being altered by other people and occurrences? Deep, man. Have I transported you to a campfire somewhere on a Thai beach with some gap year students? Yikes.

But the film is smarter in more ways then one, and I think non-intentionally, possibly. The animation sequence when Lola leaves the apartment block and the wonky filming in Lola’s dad’s office made me wonder if they ran out of budget or purposefully chose to do these shots this way. If anyone knows, I’d love for you to share in the comments. Either way, I liked these aspects of the film. The animation gave the film a new layer of depth, and personally, I always love when films aren’t afraid to animate alongside live-action. I think one of my favourite examples of this is Eagle vs Shark. If you get the chance, that’s worth checking out. Plus it has Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords in it, which is always good. Also, the animation is so 90s, and how could you not love a little 90s nostalgia?

As for the wonky filming in the office, it’s almost as if we shouldn’t be there, and the grainy, shaky film implies we’ve interrupting something, which of course, we are. Basically, just smart film making choices in my eyes, due to budget or not.

This film is pretty dear to me, as it’s one of the first German films I saw, and one that I watched at various points when I was studying German. I loved being able to understand more and more each time, and because the film is so short, it wasn’t a chore to sit and re-watch from time to time. I need to find a Run Lola Run equivalent for every language I study.

What’s next?

Next month, we’ll be watching Lemon Tree. Lemon Tree is set in Palestine close to the Israeli border and uses a mixture of Arabic and Hebrew in the film. This is a part of the world I feel I don’t know enough about, so I’m looking forward to getting a little insight from this film. And of course, for your viewing pleasure, here’s the trailer.

Did you watch Run Lola Run this month? What do you think? Are you looking forward to Lemon Tree? Share your thoughts in the comments!