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Thomas Tykwer __________________
Germany (1965- )
Touted as the next major German director, Tom Tykwer made his international breakthrough with the hit Run Lola Run (1998). A movie fan and autodidact, Tykwer made his first Super-8 film at age 11. Undeterred by his failure to gain admission to Germany's film schools, he entered the film industry in his early twenties, working variously as a projectionist, production assistant, script supervisor, and assistant director. After directing several short films, Tykwer made his feature debut with Deadly Maria (1993). Scripted and scored by Tykwer as well, Deadly Maria became a hit in Germany and earned the first-time auteur several prizes. Seeking to maintain his creative control, Tykwer co-founded the production company X-Filme Creative Pool in 1994 before writing, directing, and scoring his second feature Winter Sleepers (1997), a drama about the troubled relationships between several snowbound characters.
Tykwer finally made his international name, however, with his third feature, Run Lola Run. An eclectically shot time/space game, Run Lola Run envisioned three different versions of punkette Lola's desperate dash to get 100,000 marks to her drug dealer boyfriend in 20 minutes, revealing how the slightest change can make all the difference. Tykwer's pounding techno score and kinetic camerawork, and star Franka Potente's flame-red hair, enhanced the passionate energy of Lola's quest and turned the film into an unabashedly fun, stylish ride. A film festival favorite at Sundance and Venice, Run Lola Run became a blockbuster in Germany (inspiring a mini-fad for Lola-colored hair) and an international art house success. But Tykwer's eagerly awaited follow-up, The Princess and the Warrior (2000), was less well received on the festival circuit. Though and engagingly original tale of romantic adversity, the sometimes-dragging film was ultimately a victim of comparisons to its hyper-kinetic predecessor.
As Lola herself moved closer to stateside fame while turning up alongside Matt Damon in the big-budget action extravaganza The Bourne Identity , Tykwer moved further away from his frantic classic with his adaptation of the late Krzysztov Kieslowski's meditative drama Heaven. Written by Kieslowski shortly before he passed away in 1996, the tale of a mentally scarred woman whose act of revenge goes horribly awry gained increasing social relevance following the terrorist acts of 9/11, though the film was often cited as being a half-hearted attempt at melodrama with only mediocre acting. Though it could be argued that risk-taking directors such as Tykwer will inevitably meet failure from time-to-time, it remains to be seen if he will re-capture the infectious energy and originality of his early success. (Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide)
"Tom Tykwer." musicolog.com 1998 - 2003 Fairly good Web site. The interview is worthwhile. One of the better articles on Run Lola Run is Christine Haase, "You Can Run, But You Can't Hide: Transcultural Filmmaking in Run, Lola, Run." Light Motives: German Popular Film in Perspective. Eds. Randall Halle and Margaret McCarthy. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003. Not sure if the book is in the Duquesne Library, but Pitt should have it. E-mail your prof if you can't find it and need it for a paper--I have a copy.
Mann, Douglas. "Play Lara Play, Run Lola Run: Reflections on Postmodern Comic Book and Video Game Culture." University of Western Ontario. Excellent unpublished article by a brilliant Canadian professor that discusses RLR in the context of video games, postmodernism, and hyperreality. (Also includes a section on Lara Croft and Tomb Raider).
6 December 2005
(http://publish.uwo.ca/~dmann/laralola.htm)
Holbrook, Thom. "Good God Run Lola Run."
Thom Holbrook's Hollywood. Read with caution. This fellow is not a scholar, just someone very interested in films and pop culture. But he does offer an interesting reading of the film from a Christian perspective (he sees Lola as a Christ figure, and argues that the three parts of the film roughly parallel the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, metaphorically.
He notices a lot of interesting details many critics have missed--e.g., the changing color of the money bags, and the cartoon Lola's "leap of faith" in run number three.
6 November 2004
(http://www.musicolog.com/tykwer.asp) |
