Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Fourth Analysis: Post-modernism in Run Lola Run

"In contrast to centered (even polycentric) systems with hierarchical modes of communication and preestablished paths, the rhizome is an acentered, nonhierarchical, nonsignifying system without a General and without an organizing memory or central automaton, defined solely by a circulation of states" (Deleuze 378). Deleuze and Guattari's "rhizome" is the illustration of the the post-modern idea that the world may be seen in different perspectives than the modernist idea that there is one ultimate scientific answer to our world. While modernist science is a logical path to an answer, the post-modernist rhizome is an assortment of states that are dependent on their relation to the other states - there is no "answer," only possibility. The 1998 German film Run Lola Run is an excellent manifestation of the rhizome.



Run Lola Run seems to have an extremely fatalistic story in the beginning. A logical, typical story is presented at first about Lola's intense journey to help her lover in the face of his impending retaliation from his mob leader for his loss of $100,000. However, shortly the New York Times review stating the film as "Hot, Fast, and Post Human" (shown in the clip) is realized. After Lola's failure to help her lover, the movie begins anew, as if Lola had a time machine, from scene one. The events of the fatalistic logical story then began to change as Lola's choices change in accordance with the rhizome of possibilities she has to get what she wants.

The important thing about Run Lola Run is that there is no time machine. Lola's story is told in a series of possible states. If a time machine were introduced into this, the story would again become a logical story of trying to get the most pleasing of present times by altering the past. Instead, the past is presented to the audience as a series of possibilities that we can judge for their own merit. Lola has no logical methodology, because she is just a being trapped in conflicting circumstances that require her to act. This is especially clear by Lola's relations to other humans in the film. Where Lola changes her choices, she changes the circumstances for other people, thus changing their ending. This is a fascinating exploration of post-modernism and the rhizome.

Works Cited_

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus. Edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Literary Theory: An Anthology Second Edition.

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