“The way the audience experiences a film as a whole depends upon both narrative and stylistic elements.” Running in Circles: Run Lola Run, Kate Matthews

Run Lola Run and 127 Hours are films that portray the main characters’ single-minded determination to achieve, allowing us to compare and contrast the films.

Run Lola Run focuses on a young woman named Lola, who desperately needs to obtain one hundred thousand marks in a period of twenty minutes. The Director, Tom Tykwer, uses each run to portray an alternate reality of what might happen during each twenty minutes and the possible outcomes.

127 Hours portrays the harsh, amplified reality of a man named Aron Ralston, whose arm is stuck underneath a rock for a period of 127 hours. Danny Boyle cleverly uses stylistic elements to highlight the difficulties of Aron, who struggles to maintain his sanity throughout his ordeal.

Stylistic similarities

 Run Lola Run and 127 Hours have similar stylistic elements that help establish a narrative. Both films move at a fast pace. This is evident in Run Lola Run where Tykwer speeds up the pace of Lola running from one place to the other to emphasise the idea that time is valuable yet it can travel very quickly. However, in 127 Hours, Boyle uses the technique of fast-forwarding the film to express that the events that are occurring are spread out during a long period of time, although we are constantly aware that time is limited. Connecting to the fast moving pace of the film, time is essential and common between each film. In Run Lola Run and 127 Hours, the references to time are used by both directors to build urgency and tension within the films. Time also represents the element of life and death. Lola has a certain amount of time to obtain one hundred thousand marks or else her boyfriend will die and, Aron has a limited amount of time to escape from underneath the rock or find water or else he will die. Another stylistic element that both the directors use is the technique of flash forwarding. Both directors use flash forwards to show an alternate reality of what would or could have happened if a certain event had not taken place. In Run Lola Run, flash forwards are used so the audience is able to glimpse a possible future of a particular character every time Lola bumps into them.  In 127 Hours, flash forwards are used to show the audience the possible scenarios that could occur if Aron were to escape, or what he would be doing if his hand had never became trapped under the rock.

Narrative similarities

 It is through the stylistic elements of Run Lola Run and 127 Hours, the directors Tykwer and Boyle, are able to establish a narrative. Run Lola Run and 127 Hours, have  a similar narrative. In both films the main character is experiencing a form of distress. This is highlighted in Run Lola Run, where Lola has to obtain one hundred thousand marks in a period of twenty minutes or else her boyfriend will be killed. The distress is evident through facial features and the tone of Lola’s voice. In 127 Hours, distress is evident through  Aron’s dialogue and actions after his trapped underneath the rock. Due to the distress both characters experience, another narrative similarity is highlighted. This is the idea that both characters experience a physical journey. This is expressed through Lola’s running and her ability to obtain the money in time and, Aron’s survival and escaped from having his arm trapped underneath a rock.