Run Lola Run

Since the moment we have been able to think logically and esoterically the human race has struggled with and pondered on philosophical questions about the existential forces of time, love, and the interrelationship of chance and chaos that inevitably impact on our lives. These universal themes are cogently exemplified in the 1998 postmodern feature film Run Lola Run by Tom Tykwer and W.H Auden’s eulogy Funeral Blues. Furthermore, both these texts explore ways in which distinctively visual images are created and used to shape meaning.    
The idea of time being a dispassionate, tyrannical force that relentlessly moves forward without any empathetic concern regarding our destinies or fate is a central idea which is skilfully constructed and uniquely represented in both texts. The film frantically opens with a hyperbolic visual motif of a clock and its unremitting ticking sound illustrating time as the central thematic concern of this film. The camera shows a pendulum constantly swaying back and forth across the screen. The camera pans upwards to an undershot of the demonic faced clock placing the audience in a submissive position within the narrative. The mouth of the creature clock opens and metaphorically consumes the audience into the dark abyss illustrating time as controlling and ominous.   Furthermore the combination of the swinging talisman and the diegetic, pleonastic sound of the rapid ticking creates the fast-paced and dramatic atmosphere of the film.  
Similarly time also continues to surge forward despite the sorrow felt by the persona in funeral blues. The unpredictability of time in relation to love is clearly demonstrated in the quote “I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.” The use of temporal language gives reference to time and the emptiness time has caused him. The persona now feels that all is futile, as he can no longer share the eternal element of love with his partner. Time is also examined in this poem in relation to death...