The Wonders of World Cinema
Kim Chen
Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer, 1998)
Find a way into the film by examining an element that you believe is crucial to your making meaning from the experience of viewing it. The following compilation of questions is meant to help spark your ideas. One of these questions is sufficient for your 2-page mini-essay.
Your essay should be analysis and not summary. Break down the movie into parts that support your overall framework or argument and then synthesize these parts into a coherent whole. Answer the question “So what?” or why does this matter in the world (or at least the world of cinema).
Alternatively, construct your own framework for the mini-essay on something that sparks your interest. Discuss it with the class or with me to be sure that you are on the right track to a viable essay.
These are general frameworks for structuring your essay:
What elements of cinema are at play, and how do they enhance or distract from the overall goal?
How does the subject matter make a difference? What is the “so what” or why does the director present the content in the way that he/she does?
How does it matter in the world? Include the context of the movie, the place and time it was made.
Does the movie fit into the national cinema from which it was made? How do you think others might perceive it? How was it received on the world stage?
Choose one of these questions specifically about this movie:
How does the film celebrate alternatives the process of making choices in our lives that affect not only ourselves but the people and communities in which we live?
Analyze the way in which the director combined Hollywood style and the art film elements.
How does characterization as done with cinematic techniques affect how we feel about Lola and Manni?
Is Lola a mythical presence and/or a kind of superpower?
Is Lola portrayed as an object of the male gaze in the way in which she is filmed?
How does the architecture and history of Germany become a key element, and perhaps even a character, in the film?
How does this film fit into the New German film movement?
Can the film be said to be a representation of chaos theory?
Analyze the use of light and color to convey meaning in the film.
Construct your own structure for your essay.