Teaching Run Lola Run

[John C. Weaver]

I don't have a particular idea to share, but the movie Run Lola Run works well with students in my opinion. There isn't an enormous amount of dialogue, so we can talk about pure image. However, my students also think the idea of the movie--that tiny changes in timing--might have an enormous impact on the decisions we make and the ends that we and the people we encounter meet is a really cool one.

(Wow! Could that last sentence become any more impacted?)

John

[Jeana Rock]

I love this movie as well. I love the use of animation, the camera angles, long shots, etc. aswell as the narrative. I think it is a masterpiece, but unfortunately I can't even show a clip from it because of a district video policy!

[Ryan Goble]

Yeah, Sliding Doors might be a really nice companion film even if Paltrow's accent is horrid. There is as nice lesson plan / backstory for this film in Costanzo's Great Films and How to Teach Them book. Also you might give this TAL a listen as a companion text about the power of choices - "Seemed Like A Good Idea at the Time." I know you didn't really ask a question so I do what I always do - resources resources resources :)

Ry:)

[Jennifer Lee]

Slightly different in terms of time changes but Groundhog Day is also a great study. It has been given notice for its references to spirituality - Buddhists love the movie because it deals with improving one's self through selfless thoughts and acts and Bill Murray definitely goes through this!

[Sean]

Run Lola Run...I focus as well on the use of color and the distance the characters are from each other and the tension or comfort it causes. Camera angles are a great study as well.


A foreign film suggestion...or two....

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (Ireland): stars Cillian Murphy with his true accent! A perfect film to show for realism. No soundtrack, other than the music played by the characters. Stumbling on lines and stuttering. It's amazingly realistic, and that's what makes it so powerful. A movie about the Irish Civil War.

Evening (U.S...sorry not foreign but I wanted to plug it in for film lit): a great instance to read the book and then the movie and see how the film crew adapted the book for the big screen. There are many interesting things they did to keep the spirit of the book and really do it well.

Suggested for the English classroom...

Veronica Guerin (Ireland): how words can truly be mightier than the sword, as they are incredibly dangerous to the mafia and druglords of Dublin. Also a true story about a journalist in the 90s. It helps that is stars Cate Blanchett.

Ned Kelly (w/ Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom....the girls would love it I'm sure): the story of the Australian outlaw, a great movie to study when talking about British colonialism or about the idea of a hero (because he is the anti-hero). Oh, shoot, I forgot we were talking about film lit....(but just in case I'll leave that in).

[John C. Weaver]

I actually taught Roshamon a couple of times when I had ninth grade English, and I was shocked when they loved it--a black and white subtitled Japanese film from the 1950s. All those things that normally they would hate they didn't even notice once the alternate perspectives of the "crime" begin. I agree that it twins nicely with Lola.