4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS
German actress Franka Potente plays Lola, Manni’s girlfriend, and he needs $100,000 Deutsche marks in 20 minutes after he loses the cash during an underground money run. Lola runs through the streets of Berlin hoping to get the money.
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“RUN LOLA RUN: 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION”
4K Ultra HD; 1998; R for violence and profanity
Best extra: A commentary with director Tom Tykwer and actress Franka Potente (“The Bourne Identity”).
THE 1920s was the golden age of German cinema. Expressionistic filmmaking – with its distorted camera angles and harsh lighting – characterized Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” and Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis.”
During the early 1980s, Wolfgang Petersen (“In the Line of Fire,” “Air Force One,” “The Perfect Storm”) made his mark with the World War II German masterpiece “Das Boot” (1981), with its claustrophobic submarine imagery and exploding depth charges. It received six Academy Award nominations.
In the late ‘90s, a new generation of German visual creators hit the world cinema with “Run Lola Run.” Young director Tom Tykwer delivers a nonstop tale full of MTV-style kinetic energy, starring his then-girlfriend, Franka Potente. Using live action, animation, flash images, and heart-pounding techno music, Tykwer’s visual style pops off the screen with the 4K upgrade – especially with his palette of brilliant colors.
Bright, cranberry-haired Lola (Potente) gets the phone call of her life. She’s got 20 minutes to find $100,000 Deutsche marks (U.S. $60,000) to save her boyfriend, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), from gangsters. The story is told three times in 80 minutes, as her path and outcome vary differently.
(1-4) Manni frantically calls Lola and tells her how he lost the money on the subway and a homeless man picks up the bag of money.
EXTRAS
The 4K disc carries several previous bonus features found on the 2008 Blu-ray and the 2022 4K Ultra HD edition, an exclusive part of the 11-film Sony Pictures Classics: 4K 30th Anniversary Collection. There are two commentaries, one with Tykwer and the film editor Mathilde Bonnefoy, and the best with Tykwer and Potente, as they recount the low-budget (under $2 million), seven-week Berlin production.
“I always start with the image to build a story around, and it was a woman running,” Tykwer says. Potente wishes the running could’ve been done in sneakers instead of her heavy boots. Also at the time, the 22-year-old drama student from Munich was smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, which only made matters worse.
Tykwer also discusses the usage of the split screen technique inspired by Brian DePalma’s ‘70s films “Sisters” (1973), “Obsession” and “Carrie” (1976).
The 4K also includes the 2008 featurette “Still Running” with interviews from Tykwer and Potente, in which she says, “We didn’t know what we were really doing or what this was gonna be? But it felt kind of special.” Tykwer’s storyline examined the “possibilities of life, and the variations of life, and …the possibilities of cinema and cinematic language.”
Still, they never imagined it to be a commercial success. “It was an extremely experimental, fun thing,” Tykwer says. The first public screening was unannounced at the Venice Film Festival and received high praise from critics and moviegoers. It was nominated for Best Non-English Language Film at the British Oscars (BAFTA).
Part 1
(1) The three storylines, Lola runs down the steps in an opening animation scene. (2-4) She runs to her father’s work, where he’s a banking executive (Herbert Knaup), and hopes to get the money. But she discovers him in close contact with Frau Hansen (Nina Petri) a Board of Directors member. (5&6) He’s unhelpful and has Lola escorted from the bank.
Their biggest challenge was getting Potente’s hair the right shade of red and keeping the color. First, they bleached her hair eight times, to get it “really white,” so when they colored it red it was a brilliant red. For Potente, the greatest frustration was not being able to wash her hair for three months. “At the midpoint, I was begging on my knees, I have to wash my hair.”
Available for the first time is the original 29-minute “Making of” featurette in German with subtitles, audition footage, and additional interviews from producer Maria Köpf, editor Mathilde Bonnefoy, cinematographer Frank Griebe, co-star Moritz Bleibtreu, and composers Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek.
VIDEO
You can always count on Sony Pictures to provide the best 4K restoration in the business. The film grain integrity and onscreen clarity are top-notch – it only drops during composite split screens, fades, and the usage of standard-def video cameras. The original 35mm camera negative (1.85:1 aspect ratio) was scanned in 4K. HDR10 and Dolby Vision grading was applied with exceptional results. The colors are striking, and the contrast levels are completely balanced from deep blacks to controlled highlights.
Everything was encoded onto the smaller 66 GB disc, which is ok with its short running time, and the video bitrate consistently runs from the mid-60 Megabits per second range to 90 Mbps. The peak HDR10 brightness hits 1088 nits and averages 369 nits.
(1&2) The first of several split-screen composite shots. Lola runs toward Manni and if she doesn’t arrive in time he plans to rob a nearby grocery store. (3&4) The couple escapes with the money but it doesn’t go as planned. (5) In the transition between the next two parts, the screen goes hyper-red in a peaceful scene between Lola and Manni.
AUDIO
The 4K only includes the original German (with subtitles) six-channel DTS-HD-Master Audio soundtrack featuring a robust front soundstage with driving, pulsating music, and clear dialogue. Surround speakers will still get plenty of effect sounds from gunshots to Lola’s high-pitched scream.
When the website Tasteofcinema.com selected its Top 30 Movies Made Under 90 Minutes, “Run Lola Run” was selected No. 6 between Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” (1936) and Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona” (1967). They said, “It is not only fun, but also thought-provoking to run with Lola in this unlikely hybrid of arthouse and fast-paced action.”
Don’t miss this wild chase where every second counts.
— Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer
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