‘Cinema that interests me is cinema about openings, unresolved questions and experiements, … without refusing chaos, chance, destiny or the unexpected.’ This quote by Tom Tykwer (Composer), epitomizes how he is trying to explore the range of possibilities in film. Also making it distinctive to draw in the audience by having open ended possibilities in film. The movie ‘Run lola run’ directed by Tom Tykwer and ‘the red tree’ written by shaun tan, both establish two core ideas which are chance and time. The use of a variety of techniques create distinctively visual images that are highly distinctive.
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Chance is an idea which is clearly portrayed in both texts. In the movie, ‘Run lola run’, the director uses flash forwards to empitomize this idea of chance. The audience witnesses the lives change for the people that lola bumbs into on her journeys, and how their lives change each time to how lols life changes. This is seen with the lady with the pram that lola encounters each time as she beggings her run. This symbolises the unpredictability of life. Lola’s destiny in each three stories, so do the lives of the people that she sees. The use of the fast non-digetic sound of the clicking of the camera, allows the audience to feel a sense of urgency. This reflects the idea of fate, that our choices, circumstnces and actions are all connected with those whom we encounter in life. The audience gains a sense of knowledge and is made aware that their life is unpredictable and their actions affect others. Furthermore, the use of characterisation is evident in the main character Lola. The idea of using a female as the protagonist of the film is what makes this post-modern film so distinctive to all the other films in todays society. As a result, lola feels at time, that she isn’t in control of her destiny and uses her loud, high-pitched scream to change that. The reoccurring digetic sound of lolas scream is mainly evident in the casino scene, where there is a close-up on Lolas face as she screams to control her destiny with the ball to land on the number 20, as she plays the ultimate game of chance. The audience is made to feel anxious as the wait to see the result of her scream. Hence the idea of chance is also presented in the picture book, ‘The red tree’. The metaphore ‘the world is a deaf machine’, is used in conjuction with the dull colours used to portray that the persona, the little girl, feels unheard and fears that her destiny will be to end up alone and not belong in society. The reader is automatically drawn to empathise with the persona as how a little girl can be unheard and be left all alone. Thus, the use of composiotion layout is used in the middle of the picture book. Where the vector image is a game board which symbolises chance and many paths, also it is evident that the girl in the corner of the page is holding a dice, this dice represents the idea of fate. This illustrates to the reader that the persona believes that her life is a game and also she is unsure of the future. All the above techniques used in both the film ‘Run lola run’ and the picture book ‘the red tree’ influence the idea of chance and the use of visual techniques are what makes these texts both so distinctively visual.
Time is an important idea in both texts which is constantly reoccurring. At the beginning of the movie ‘run lola run’, the opening credits, an animated lola is seen running towards a clock as the sound effects of tick tocking sounds. Allow the audience to be aware of the importance of time in this film. Hence, the close upshot of the pendukm grand-father clock in the opening credits, helps aid the importance of time. The reaccuring motif of clocks and the number 20, 20 minutes to save mani, generates drama and exicitment, also reminding the audience of lolas race against time. Furthermore, the audience is with lola in her journey for the real time of 20 minutes. This gives the audience the knowledge of what lola actually completes in 20 minutes. This technique is what makes this post-modern film so distinctively visual. Furthermore, the use of split screen image is constantly reaccuring in the tri-part structure of the film. This is shown in the multiple scences between mani, lola and the town clock, as lola competes against time to get to mani and save him. This is used to engange the audience and make them wonder what is going to happen next and allow them to wonder if she will make it in time. Simliarily the idea of time is present in the picture book, ‘the red tree’ with the reoccurring motif of the red leaf. The persona at the start of the novel doesn’t pay attention to it, however towards the end of the book she notices it and it is evident that a smile begins to form on her face. This is used to symbolise to the reader that it takes time for a good outcome to occur also that in ones life timing is everything. Furthermore the repition of ‘and wait..’ symbolises that the persona is just waiting for something to happen. This makes the reader feel sympathetic to the little girl. This visual technique is used to make both texts so distinctively visual. Also the different events in each of the characters life, helps shape the texts to be unique.
In conclusion, the movie ‘run lola run’ and the picture book ‘the red tree’ the use of many visual and aural techniques has created texts that are portrayed to be distinctively visual.
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