Not many directors dare to work on the music to their own films, but Tom Tykwer does. He teamed up with musicians Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil (see also: THE MUSICIANS) to produce the soundtrack to RUN LOLA RUN. As with Tykwer's Winter Sleepers, the score for which he also created with Heil and Klimek, the music for RUN LOLA RUN is a unique mix of the three musicians' different styles - New German Wave, classical film music and a lot of techno.The extraordinary music is further enhanced by an extraordinary voice: Lola actress Franka Potente made her debut as a singer on the soundtrack. In listening to the results, it is clear that she enjoyed what she was doing. She murmurs, whispers and breathes life into the dark, beat-laden tones. Her singing makes her secretive and mysterious.
Through the songs, the film structure finds its acoustic counterpart. In their multi-facetted variations, the songs set to The First Run, The Second Run and The Third Run underscore the development and changes of the heroine. High pitched, feverish acid tones and 80s sounds whip the First Run into a wild finale. The Second Run is characterised by exhilarated singing, elaborate Drum'n'Bass rhythms and rouses associations with the Underworld hit 'Born Slippy' from the film 'Trainspotting'. The Third Run on the other hand, is an electronic pop piece with breakbeat influence, which Franka Potente's voice makes both eerie and sexy at one and the same time.
The other pieces on the soundtrack are a brilliant fusion of intoxicating dance tracks, which transform the tempo of the film into a rush of speed. In 'A supermarket', the sound of trance techno, spills into a bass drum to sound like a speeded-up heartbeat. 'Escape from the Bank' is hip Detroit techno, which accompanies the images with a minimalist and serious pulsing line.
The soundtrack to RUN LOLA RUN is almost like another film. It conjures up fast images from a fast life in Berlin, the vision of a breathless chase, and the feeling of life at the end of the nineties. It is right in keeping with director Tom Tykwer's understanding of what makes film music: "music and images equals film."
