Looking for a genuinely heart-pounding, inventive blockbuster for your summer movie-watching schedule? Consider something classic: Tom Tykwer’s clever 1999 thriller “Run Lola Run.” In celebration of the film‘s 25th anniversary, Sony Pictures Classics announced Friday that they will reissue the film in theaters on June 7, timed to coincide with the film’s original U.S. release. The anniversary reissue will feature a new DCP from the 4K restoration, “created in collaboration with the filmmakers.”
Written and directed by Tykwer, “Run Lola Run” was a breakout smash hit for both the filmmaker and his star Franka Potente. Per today’s announcement, at the time of its original release, the film was “hailed for its experimental structure, propulsive techno score (composed by Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil), and Potente’s fierce performance as the titular, flame-haired heroine.” IndieWire’s review from 1999 hailed its “clever, wholly unique narrative concept” which “instantly makes it one of the more original, unpretentious European films seen on these shores in years.”
Per today’s announcement, the film follows “Lola (Franka Potente) [as she] answers a call from her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtrau), a small-time courier for a big-time gangster. He has a problem: His boss is coming to pick up 100,000 Deutsche Marks in 20 minutes, and he doesn’t have the money. With Manni’s life on the line, Lola runs through the streets of Berlin to reach him and somehow pick up 100,000 marks along the way, making split-second decisions and encountering acquaintances, family, and strangers. As the clock ticks down, the tiniest choices become life-altering (or life-ending), and the fine line between fate and fortune begins to blur.”
The film is told in three variations and memorably features three endings, all of it set to a soundtrack that continues to draw accolades from film buffs and soundtrack fans today. Sony Pictures Classics initially released the film in the U.S., a year after its German release. The film grossed over $7 million dollars in the United States and Canada, becoming one of the highest grossing foreign-language films ever released domestically at that time, in addition to pulling in over $22 million internationally.
“Run Lola Run” started its, er, run with an enviable festival schedule: it screened at Venice, TIFF, and Sundance (where it won the Audience Award), before picking up seven awards at the German Film Awards and being picked as the German entry for Best Foreign Language film at the 71st Academy Awards (though it did not make the film pack of five nominees).
In an official statement, Sony Pictures Classics brass shared, “Over the past 25 years, ‘Run Lola Run’ remains one of the most enduring Sony Pictures Classics titles of all time. It is as timely now as when it first appeared in theaters in 1999. Our nationwide reissue in June is a celebration of this first hi-tech thriller presented as it deserves, to be seen and reseen on the big screen, and to continue to dazzle new generations of viewers.”
Earlier this year, SPC re-released another one of its beloved classics into theaters: Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s delightful “Amélie.” In the coming months, the distributor will release a pair of new films, including the Dakota Johnson-starring “Daddio” and the Sundance hit “Kneecap.”
