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| Figure 1: Run Lola Run [Poster] (1998) |
Run Lola Run (1998) is a German drama/mystery film based around a girl named Lola, who receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni about owing money. She then has 20 minutes to find the money and get it to Manni. This is when Lola starts running. While she runs, three different events take place depending on who she runs into on her way to Manni. Each time a scenario fails, the next one begins with her running. This is how the film follows a non-linear timeline, it constantly goes back to be replayed.
A non-linear narrative is a story that goes against the typical Hollywood film structure. It is used as a narrative technique where events are shown disjoined, out of chronological order. Sometimes it is used to reflect a particular characters psychological state, flashing back and forth all the time- like in Fight Club, where the narrator is always flashing between memories of himself or Tyler Durden throughout the story to figure out what's going on. A chronological/chronicle narrative would result in the structure of the story being told in the correct order, a linear order, where things happen going forward, as they would in a realistic timeframe.
The story itself consists of the same thing, three times, but each time something different happens to change the timeline and therefore the outcome of the scenario. Run Lola Run manipulates both time and the narrative structure of storytelling. There are flashbacks and flashforwards throughout the film, captured in snapshots based upon the person who she has run into on her journey. The film could not be told in any other way; it could not be told in chronological order due to the story itself revolving around alternative narratives to show chain reactions provoked by Lola doing things differently each time. It revolves around chain reactions/ a butterfly effect. The film also flips between a short animated sequence of Lola running, and then back to the live-action shooting after it- this also breaks up the way it looks to feel non-linear, and each short is changed a little bit each time the cycle repeats. Along with this they also changed the running sequence each time to keep the film visually interesting.
At the beginning of the film we are introduced to a blur of hundreds of people, we stop to see a few of them in a clearer setting- these end up being the characters that we see in Lola's runs. Throughout the film as Lola runs into these people, there are snapshots of their lives in the potential future based upon the different way she interacts with them via her running. It is these flashforwards that show how these few seconds of interaction could drastically alter somebodies life. The fact that the film takes the time to show the cause and effect on a minor (unimportant) character that we know nothing about allows the world to feel more realistic to the audience, there is a world that is being affected around the actions of Lola. A lot of other films may not take the time to show this within their narrative. But this film allows the audience to see other things taking place, despite their actual attachment to Lola's goals.
There is a flashback that comes completely out of the narrative, when Lola gets shot in one of the scenarios and as she dies, there is a flashback to her and Manni laying in bed together having an intimate conversation about love and their feelings for each other. It goes back in time to teach the audience about the characters' emotions more in-depth than any current scene could have. After this scenario, we jump straight into another one- which is very much non-linear. Each time we meet the same character, something different happens- part of the chain reaction that Lola has set off each time.
Each time the story resets, we begin the scene with the same telephone shot to allow the audience to grasp onto a constant that shows we have entered another linear timeline. The phone slamming down helps to represent the beginning of the same sequence for the characters so that the film follows a structure that is actually readable to an audience; It makes sense this way. Although the film follows a non-linear structure, each repeating sequence does follow its own linear path within the greater story.
The film follows a Non-linear Zigzag, in the way that the film goes forward, stops and repeats three times until Lola is successful in saving Manni. Each 20-minute sequence is chronicle until we reset into the bigger picture, where the same scenario repeats until she gets it right. It is because of this that it can be concluded that Run Lola Run is a non-linear film.
Illustration:
Figure 1: Run Lola Run [Poster] (1998) At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130827/mediaviewer/rm215942400
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