The Rashomon Effect Hattie Tsoi 003258-145

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Video Audio Beginning sequence of Run Lola Run in which Tom Tykwer (the director of the film) uses a quote from T.S. Elliot. Fade to contrasting quote by S. Herberger. Fades to black and white title fades in and out “The Rashomon Effect”

Music: Iconic and highly recognizable ‘Stuck in the middle with you’ by Stealer’s Wheel begins to play… intertextual reference to Reservoir Dogs Music fades out after title

Cuts to scene where the phone falls onto the phone-stand and animated figure appears to pull the screen transition. Swipe transition to Lola with 360 degree panning motion as the audience is invited to see all the possibilities of people she knows who can help her in her hour of need. (Intercutting and layering of Lola in medium close-up juxtaposed with quick images of different people) Bottom left hand corner white text fades in “Run Lola Run, Tom Tykwer, 1998”

Narrator (Hattie Tsoi): Post-Modern film critics would argue that there are no absolutes, there is no objective set of rules to film-making nor is there an objective truth in society. One person’s opinion is as important as the next. This can be seen in Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola run. Subjectivity is demonstrated as we see a glimpse of all the possibilities available to Lola.

Cuts to scene where Lola and Manni repeats “der tasche” (Run Lola Run)

Narrator: In post-modern cinema, linear narratives no longer apply

Talking-head shot of Peter Barry, constructed using the rule of thirds as he is sitting in front of a bookshelf with many books on post-modernism such as ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ by Jean Baudrillard. Bottom left hand corner in white text: “Peter Barry, writer” Cutaway to full body shot of a group of nuns walking along the street all dressed in black and white, tracking shot follows Lola running through the nuns, camera pans to the right as Lola’s POV shot, when she looks at one nun who looks difference because she is wearing sunglasses.

Barry: Metanarratives that purport to explain and reassure are really… …illusions fostered in order to smother difference, opposition, and plurality. Hence Lyotard’s famous definition of postmodernism, that is, simply, ‘incredulity towards metanarratives.’

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Cut to a quick montage of mid shot of the woodsman telling the story during the trial, the same shot of the priest, and finally to same shot of the bandit. Bottom left hand corner white text fades in: “Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa, 1950”

Narrator: Post modernism is a contemporary movement that arose after the modernist period in 1870. Put simply, post-modernism rejects objective truth and the fact that there is a singular reality.

Cuts to the spinning roulette (Run Lola Run) Cuts to Talking head shot of Douglas Mann with posters of Lara Croft on the left side and a drawer with computer games including Tomb Raider. Bottom left hand corner in white text writing “Douglas Mann, Professor in Philosophy”

Narrator: While dealing with such profound ideas, post modernism offers to the audience never-ending enjoyment and playfulness. Mann: One obviously postmodern technique is Tom Tykwer’s mixing of conventional colour film, short black and white segments, and video tape filmed with a hand-held camera. This is an appeal to pastiche.

Cut to a montage of three shots, the first is a long shot of Manni in the colour boosted bright yellow phone booth where the camera slowly zooms into the phonebooth. The second is the animation scene close up into Lola’s eyes, then her shoes and the high angle shot of her jumping up. At this point cut to the realist long shot of the hobo riding his bicycle. Cut to a montage of a series of still shots in the manner of photographs in grainy quality. The photos are a series of events in the life of the old woman with a pram who Lola bumped into while running.

Mann: The jarring contrast between the film and video tape segments highlights a shift in the emotional mood of the film: when Lola runs in present time, she's always presented in colour; but when we see her father arguing with his illicit lover, it shifts to grainier, more subdued video tape. Video tape is used whenever we see just the secondary characters… …The short black-and-white segments always picture events remembered or recounted by Lola or Manni, the past pictured in the medium of the early cinema.

Talking-head shot of Peter Barry (in same position as before) Cut to the animation of aerial shot of Lola running down the spiral staircase. ‘Fragmentation’ in white text

Barry: For the postmodernist fragmentation is an exhilarating, liberating phenomenon…

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fades in in the top right hand corner. Fades out. “Claustrophobic of fixed systems” in white fades in in bottom left hand corner. Fades out.

…symptomatic of our escape from the claustrophobic embrace of fixed systems of belief

Cut to montage-style extreme high angle shot of Lola, followed by two high angle shots close ups that gets closer and closer to Lola’s face to reinforce the pressure Lola is facing and the power of her scream.

Narrator: Equally, the post-modernist’s refusal to follow rules can be seen when Lola screams and all the bottles in the room explode. She screams several times in the film and seems to be able to break things and slow time, this is unrealistic however, Tykwer, as a post modernist auteur does not have to care, for he does it for the purpose of playfulness and he does not care for his film being realistic.

Cuts to scene of the montage of Lola’s apartment with quick shots of the Barbie dolls and then the turtle on the floor from high angled shot. Cut to Long shot of the Bolle supermarket from POV of Mani (within phone booth) with frame split in two: one side highlighting the supermarket and the other, the clock to remind viewers that time and space is running out. Aerial close up shot of supposedly dead Lola, cut to the phone handset falling on the phone stand, cut to mid close up of Lola alive again standing in her room. Cut to archive footage of the cartoon the tortoise and the hare, long shot of the tortoise running in the foreground and the hare is sleeping under a tree in the background. Bottom left hand corner in white text “The Tortoise and the Hare, Disney, 1934”

The subsequent shots of the window and the Barbies are filmed with a canted angle, to signify chaos. This is reinforced by the spiral outside Manni’s phonebooth. There are always many clocks in the mise en scene throughout the film because the film is about a race against time – Lola has 20 minutes to get 100000 marks. Time is also highly manipulated in the film as Lola has the chance to live her life three times. The idea of the race against time is further reinforced with the playfulness of intertexualising the story of the turtle and the hare.

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Cut to canted long tracking shot Lola running intercutting with close up of Lola’s feet and Lola’s face.

Tykwer did this to position the audience to feel like Lola is also in a action computer game. This is why nothing has to be realistic in the film.

Talking Head shot of Tom Tykwer. Constructed with rule of thirds with a big poster of the movie Run Lola Run as backdrop. Caption in white text in bottom left hand corner writing “Tom Tykwer, director of Run Lola Run”

Tykwer: The space-time continuum is unhinged, so what? We're at the movies!

Cut to close up of Manni lying dead on the floor. Cut to scene of Lola’s mother speaking on the phone. 360 degree panning motion surrounds the woman creating almost dizzying effect on the audience. Camera then zooms into the television where an overhead shot shows Lola running down seemingly never-ending spiral stairs.

Narrator: Run Lola Run follows a loop narrative where Lola is able to restart her life when either Manni or herself dies. Every time she restarts, the audience is taken back to the same scene of her mother next door, zooming into the television. The 360 deegree panning motion is used to connote the cyclical nature of the film, and the dizzying effect contributes to lead the audience into a fantasy world. Lola running down spiral stairs also connote the cyclical and never-ending nature of the narrative.

Talking head shot of Douglas Mann (in same position as before) Cut to close up of Lola lying dead on the floor where camera zooms into Lola’s eyes and the shot is filtered with red and fades into completely red. Cut back to Mann

Mann: Run Lola Run is an excellent example how comic book and video culture brings postmodern cultural elements into film. All the main elements are there: The evocation of a hyperreal culture where simulations precede reality - or in this case, where reality is so malleable…

…that it can actually be replayed if things go badly, just as a video game player can hit the restart button and play the game over.

Cut to scene of slightly low Narrator: The audience feels

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angle mid close up of Lola holding the gun with selective focus on Lola’s face to show she pauses to remember how to use a gun from her previous ‘life’. Cuts to a close up shot of her flicking the safety catch on the gun. And then cuts to low angle mid shot of Lola firing the gun. Cut to long shot of Lara Croft swinging on a platform towards to camera, dressed in black sleeveless shirt, metal belt and black pants. White text fades in on bottom left hand corner “Lara Croft - Tomb Raider, Simon West, 2001”.

like it is a video game because Lola appears to learn new skills and know about the obstacles after restarting each time, as a video game player would know. For example, she knows how to hold the gun and knows to jump over the dog - an obstacle to jump over in games, while running down the stairs. Lola’s dressed in sleeveless shirt with a belt also seems to be intertextual reference to Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider film and video game. Further reinforcing that the structure of Run Lola Run resembles a video game. Both Lara Croft and Lola are presented as strong and powerful post-feminist heroines. Lola is strong, she drives the narrative, receives the most screen time and is also more capable than her boyfriend, Manni. Post modernism and post-feminism both embrace the binary oppositions between male a female.

Talking head shot of Douglas Mann in same position as before.

Mann: There is notably a recycling of the techniques and structure of computer role-playing games and rock music videos in the context of an action film.

Cuts to a long shot of a group of high-class people in suits in the casino, the camera zooms towards the painting of the blond woman behind all the people.

Narrator: Another factor of post-modernism is to breakdown high art and mix it with pop culture. The glamorous painting of the blond woman is an intertextual reference to Kim Novak in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Tykwer cleverly placed this reference in high art form in his pop-like film.

Cut to the football game scene low angle mid shot of the bank guard talking about life is just a game. Cuts to aerial

Narrator: Through the unrealistic portrayal of life, essentially, Tykwer wants to deliver to us the idea that

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shot of him kicking a football up towards the air.

life is just like a game in the sense that no questions can be answered and there is no definitive or universal truth.

Cut to shot composed into three sections. On the right, it is a close up of Manni looking at the time. On the left, it is a close up of Lola running. On the lower third, there is a clock ticking towards noon. Cuts to scene of close up shot of the sign of the Rashomon gate, rain is falling heavily. The camera pans down to the three people crouching under the gate discussing.

Narrator: Run Lola Run uses a non-linear narrative to propose that there is no definite reality in life, time can be manipulated, so can life and death, just like a computer game. On the other hand, Rashomon deals with the idea that there are multiple truths in society more seriously. Although, Rashomon follows a linear narrative, there are five different enunciators to one story to deliver the subjectivities to truths in society. The narrative of Rashomon aims to explore truth and human weakness.

Talking head shot of Greg Brian, framed with various media magazines eg. sight and sound. Caption in white text in bottom left hand corner writing “Greg Brian, freelance media writer”

Brian: The classic 1950 Japanese film "Rashomon" (directed by legendary Akira Kurosawa) brought a whole-new innovation to filmmaking- as well as a previously little-understood philosophy to the world: Subjective views on reality.

Cut to scene where the woodsman is walking in the forest. Low tilted panning shot (flaring the lens) of the sun covered with layers of leaves (that are backlit as silhouettes). Intercutting with tracking mid-shot of the woodsman (covered by layers of leaves) walking through the forest.

Narrator: When the woodsman first tells his story, he is walking in the forest and, a shot typical to Kurosawa, the camera is filming upwards towards the sun, where there are multiple layers of leaves connoting the core of the film: that the truth is obscured. The leaves are sillhouettes, which also foreshadows that something ominous is to be revealed – the ugliness of human nature. Shadows are evident on the woodsman face to connote the unreliability and unavoidable selfishness of human nature.

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Shadows of leaves are reflected on the woodsman face. Cut to Talking-head shot of Dennis DeNitto with a drawer with many films including Kurosawa’s Rashomon and Bergman’s The Seventh Seals. White text appear in the lower left hand corner writing “Dennis Denitto, Writer” Cut to aerial shot of the bandit, wife and husband standing almost in a Mexican standoff formation. The two men are about to fight to the wife.

DeNitto: The genius of the Rashomon lies partly in creating this plausible illusion - all four versions are actually filtered through either the Woodcutter or the Priest… …When three of the versions (Bandit, Wife, Husband) turn out to be contradictory in vital respects, the Woodcutter is forced to revise his story and to admit that he had observed more than he had at first been willing to admit. His version adds to the store of contradictions.

Cut to long shot of the preist and woodsman sitting on the steps, shot is framed by the frames of the Rashomon temple and the floor where rain is falling.

Narrator: The film consist of a framed narrative, it is almost a cyclical narrative as the audience encounters the three people at the rashomon gate and the story-telling begins.

Cuts to long shot of the three characters where the woodsman and preist are crouching on the right side of the shot and the peasant is standing up on the left. Cut to the scene where the woodsman condemns the peasant of stealing clothes off an abandoned baby. The peasant’s head is framed by two rungs of a ladder, connoting he is trapped by human nature.

Narrator: This framing is important as the three characters are presented to have juxtaposing moral values. The preist is desperate to believe that people are inherently good and believes in humanity. In contrast, the peasant is a metaphor of cynicism and skepticism. The woodsman is unable to decide which side to believe, he is in the same position as the audience. The peasant appears to be most certain of his opinions and according to ideologies from the film, Kurosawa believes this man has the most insight in the nature of human kind.

Cuts to opening sequence of Rashomon where there is long shot of the Rashomon gate,

Narrator: We are also introduced to the Rashomon gate from various angles.

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then cuts to a two closer long shot shots of the Rashomon gate. We are then introduced to the puzzled expression on the face of preist and woodsman. Camera then again cuts to a low angle long shot of the Rashomon gate again.

These various angles foreshadows that there will be various sides to the story, at the same time portraying that there are various ‘truths’ in life.

Cuts to a mid shot of the woodsman sitting down, speaking with only a blank wall behind him. He is sitting in the shadow connoting he is in the dark and not completely aware of the truth. A slide transition to the preist telling his story, shot in the same position as the woodsman. This time, constructed with the rule of thirds, the woodsman is sitting in the background on the right.

Narrator: The art of this film is that we are not positioned to know which one of the character is telling the truth. When each character is telling their story to the police, they are sitting in the same position with a plain wall behind them, a slide transition is used between the woodsman and preist’s story and they are all shot from eye level which connotes they are all of the same status and therefore their stories are all equally valid. The acknowledgement of all people, no matter expert or not, as equal is a very post-modoernist way of thinking.

Cut to the rape scene, low angle shot of the bandit grabbing onto the wife where the back of the wife is facing camera and the bandit is laughing hysterically. Intercutting with the husband looking from afar, lit with chiarascuro lighting.

Narrator: The theme of the film essentially outlines the selfishness of human nature. The story of the rape is told by different enunciators, in the wife, the bandit and the husband’s account, their story glorifies themselves.

DeNitto in same position as before. Cuts to low angle full body shot of the husband, in the foreground, the wife is lying on the floor. The husband’s sword is also evident, emphasizing his role as a Sumurai. The levels bring the connotation that the man is more dominant.

DeNitto: What the narratives of all three have in common is the urge to enhance the self-image of the teller by a positive report of how each responded to the cataclysm of the Bandit's attack each victim is eager to show himself to be the epitome of whatever dutiful virtues attach to his station and rank.

Cut to slightly high angle, over the shoulder shot of the husband, where the wife is on

Narrator: For example, the wife states in her side of the story that she believed her

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the other side begging for her husband to kill her, presenting her character as a dutiful wife. The camera pans and cuts to close up of the wife’s shocked face.

husband has committed suicide while she fainted from depression. The over the shoulder shot is used so the back of the husband is facing the audience which dehumanizes him so the audience feel sympathy for the wife, who we can see her dire expression fully. The close up of the wife emphasises her shock and feeling of disgrace, which further provokes sympathy from the audience.

Cut to the wife embodied with the spirit of her dead husband, mid shot of her sprawled on the floor in the trial, the camera zooms in towards her face. Cut to mid shot of the bandit and the wife speaking in the foreground, with the use of deep focus, the husband is seen in the background, framed between the conspiring couple before him.

Narrator: On the other hand, the husband claims that the wife has betrayed him by promising the bandit to leave with him. The use of deep focus emphasises that the husband can hear exactly what the wife is saying and therefore the audience will view the wife to be in the wrong, and sympathise for the husband. He is framed between the two other characters connoting that his life and death is dependent on them, presenting him as the victim of this incident.

Cuts to a sequence of two shot, the first is a close up of Manni and Lola sleeping in bed where a red filter is used, Manni has his arms around Lola and is smoking. The second is the same shot with the same red filter of Manni and Lola, however this time Lola has his arm around Manni and she is the one smoking.

Narrator: In both of the films, hyperreality is portrayed. The directors Tykwer and Kurosawa aim to portray that there is lack of objective truth in life and there can be many sides of how an event can be played out. They have done this through using non-linear narratives.

Douglas Mann in same position as before.

Music: ‘Stuck in the middle’ by Stealer’s Wheels fades in and plays softly in the background. Mann: In the great realms of social and cultural theory,

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Douglas Mann in same position as before.

Music: ‘Stuck in the middle’ by Stealer’s Wheels fades in and plays softly in the background. Mann: In the great realms of social and cultural theory, "postmodernism" is surely one of the most powerful buzzwords of the last generation.

Slide transition from the left (similar to in Rashomon) to Peter Barry in same position as before.

Barry: In post-modernism, the distinction between what is real and what is simulate collapses.

Slide transition to Tom Tykwer in same position.

Tykwer: Run Lola Run is a film that handles the subject of 'what chances and possibilities do you have in life'. Of course I thought the visual answer to do this must exactly be 'what chances and possibilities do you have in cinema'

Slide transition to Dennis DeNitto in same position as before

DeNitto: Rashomon's main theme is that reality is a complex of multiple perspectives, some of which conflict with each other but none of which, despite the appearance of contradiction, cancel each other out.

Close up of Rashomon sign, pathetic fallacy is utilized with the rain. Cut to mid-shot of Lola screaming in the casino, the camera contra-zooms towards Lola as she screams. Cut to spinning roulette. Cut to a quick montage of mid shot of the woodsman telling the story during the trial, the same shot of the priest, and finally to same shot of the bandit. Cut to Lola standing alone in the center of a crossroad. Camera pans in circular motion showing all the available roads she could take.

Narrator: The Rashomon effect is the effect of subjectivity of perception.In these two films subjectivity of the truth is the main theme. In Run Lola Run, nothing seems to be realistic from Lola’s powerful screaming to the action game like nature of Lola’s life. In Rashomon, the meaning of truth and reality is also manipulated when the audience is presented with no absolute truth. In post modernism, there is no singular reality…

Fades to black Music fades out