Run Lola Run Distinctively Visual Analysis

Distinctively visual techniques affect the way in which we perceive meaning and emphasise significant aspects of life through heightening our sensory appreciation of texts. The use of distinctively visual texts emphasises the ways that individuals respond to significant aspects of life such as love, time and hope through various tools and techniques. In Tom Tykwer’s motion picture Run Lola Run, the aspect of love and how we will do anything for it is emphasised through techniques such as split screen and symbolism. Tykwer also demonstrates the significant aspect of time and how it is a consuming and influential force that rules us all, through techniques such as camera angles and recurring motifs. Furthermore, In his picture book The Red
Tree, Shaun Tan effectiveley uses a variety of distincively visual techniques to emphasise the significant aspect of hope through techniques such as salient image and contrast. It is through these texts that we learn how individuals respond to significant aspects of life.

In the film Run Lola Run, Tom Twyker demonstrates love as a significant aspect of life and that we will do anything for those whom we love, through the effective use of distinctively visual techniques such as split screen, camera angles and symbolism. We also learn that love is an intense, unbreakable bond between two people that can conquer all. Twyker demonstrates this through the symbolism of the colour red. Throughout the film, Tykwer to demonstrates the intense love and connection that Lola and Manni share, specifically through the red telephone that Manni calls her on and Lola's red hair. The colour red serves as a connection between the two lovers as it is representative of the love and the connection that they share. Twyker demonstrates Lola's love and dedication to Manni through the use of the running sequences. Lola's dedication and love is emphasized by the constant rapid editing of camera angles and positions, this conveys the speed and haste that which she is running to save Manni because she loves him and will do anything for him. Lola and Manni's connection is further portrayed through the use of the split screen sequence where Manni is waiting for Lola and she is running while pleading him to "wait for me". The composition of their portraits and the clock on the screen, shows that they are connected through the power of love, as well as a physical connection. Tyker further manifests the emotional connection between Lola and Manni through the use of the red-tinged love scene where the two characters are in a bed with crumpled sheets and Lola is smoking a cigarette. The imagery of the crumpled sheets, insinuates that the couple have 'made love' and that their love is a strong physical bond as well as emotional, this notion is further portrayed by the cliché image of Lola smoking a cigarette which is symbolic in movies after characters have 'made love'. It is through these distictiveley visual techniques that Tom Tykwer uses to demonstrate love as a powerful emotion and that we will do anything for those whom we love.

Tom Twyker uses distinctively visual imagery in Run Lola Run to convey the theme of time as a consuming and influential force that rules us all and how time is a significant aspect of life, through techniques such as recurring motifs, camera angles and split screen.
Right from the beginning, Twyker places recurring motifs such as spirals and clocks to emphasize time's overarching authority and how we are bound to time. For example in the opening scene of the movie, the audience is exposed to a shot of a large dragon-shaped clock, the low angle that Twyker uses emphasizes the power and consumptive nature of time. We also learn that we are in a race against time and that it pushes us to do extraordinary feats. Twyker demonstrates this through his use of the split screen sequences where Lola and Manni are in the frame and a clock appears at the bottom, this emphasizes the presence of time everywhere and our race against time and how time is consumptive of us. It is through these distinctively visual techniques that Tom Twyker uses to convey time as consuming and influential to all of us, and that we are all in a race against
time.

In his picture book The Red Tree Shaun Tan effectively utilises a variety of distinctively visual techniques such as the recurring motif of red, salient image and contrast to convey important ideas such as how hope is an important aspect of life and despite the presence of dark days there is always hope.
The Red Tree depicts a young girl moving about her days almost consumed by depression and sadness. However Tan indicates that even when things seem overwhelming there is hope for a better day. In illustration ___ we see the salient image of a young girl trapped in a bottle by her oversized diving helmet. Her posture clearly indicates that she is unhappy and the bottle is slowly filling with water. There is no chance of escape as her oversized helmet clearly will not fit out the narrow neck of the bottle. Tan’s effective use of dark blue and grey further conveys the sombre mood and difficulty the young girl is facing. Through effective use of vector lines the viewer’s eyes are drawn along the horizon to contrasting white clouds, symbolising perhaps that there is hope on the horizon. Tan further emphasizes the sadness consuming the protagonist in illustration __. The salient image of a gigantic fish hangs over the young girl walking alone along a city street. The fish’ gaping mouth creates a vector line to the young girl who is hunched over and clearly unhappy, as she remains in the shadow of the fish while everyone else goes about their business ignoring her. Again, Tan’s
use of beige and muted tones emphasises the dullness of her day. However despite the presence of dark days there is always hope. Tan conveys this important idea in illustration _ where the young girl opens the door on her dark bedroom and a chink of light creates a vector line to a small sprouting red tree on her bedroom floor. The recurring motif of a red leaf throughout each illustration and then resulting in a blooming tree symbolises the small glimmer of hope in each situation. The salient image of the young girl’s flaming red hair and face looking towards the sprouting seedling emphasises the significance of this hope. Tan contrasts the shadows and darkness of the bedroom with the light cast on the seedling from the open door to again emphasise the presence of the seedling and hope. Finally in illustration ___ the young girl’s face is upturned with a smile to see a magnificent tree in full bloom in the centre of her room. Tan again uses vector line of the light through the door, and the smooth trunk of the tree to draw the viewer’s attention up to the deep red foliage of the tree symbolising the hope that is finally being realised in this young girl’s life. Therefore it is clear that Tan has effectively employed a variety of distinctively visual techniques to convey the important idea that despite the presence of dark days there is always hope to be found.

It is through the use of the distictively visual techniques that these texts emphasise the ways that individuals respond to significant aspects of life such as love, hope and time.