"Run Lola Run" Tykwer

In “Run Lola Run” by Tykwer it seems that with each scenario the role of dominancy changed between Lola and Manni.  When the movie first begins Lola is in charge she keeps trying to find ways to help and save Manni, but in the end Manni ends up saving himself and all the hard work she has done sort of goes to waste.

                The Fairytale aspect of how everything has a happy ending in the story seems to appear here. The first t time Lola dies, and then the second time Manni dies, but it restarts the third time and no one is hurt and they live together “happily ever after”. In the movie just like in a fairytale the ending was perfect and everyone was happy or benefited.  It was like Tykwer did that to show how everything is supposed to have a happy ending, and it’s like this comparison between fairytale and reality.

                The music in the movie is sort of what keeps the mind racing because it’s going the pace of Lola, it almost like this ticking clock in away because the music is so climatic. The music is like the music in a scary move that you only hear when something is going to happen and it keeps your heart racing and mind wondering. This is like what Tykwer is trying to do because it’s the music playing and she’s running and the whole time I was anxious because in my head I was trying to figure out what was going to happen and was she going to be able to save Manni.  It seems like in the movie Lola is the true Heroine, even though Manni saves himself at the end when he finds the bum. It’s like she could have saved him, but of course he saves himself and when he ask her about the bag she says it nothing and just walks away with him happy. It was like her efforts was put to waste and again the whole “fairy tale” aspect seems too dominant.

Yvain 3

There is the question of whether or not this is true love between Laudine and Yvain. Each time that they are brought together there is always Lunete involved with one of her plans. It doesn’t seem like love, but it seems more like Lunete bring them together because it will benefit them both.  This questions whether or not Lunete should have been killed for treason towards Laudine. Towards the conclusion of the text when Yvain creates this huge storm Laudine ask Lunete to find someone to protect the land because she knows that none of the men in the land would. Laudine suggests the knight with the lion, but Lunete says she can’t get him for he is no good because he is sad and dying of grief because the lady he loves will not forgive him.  Lunete basically traps Laudine because she says she doesn’t believe he will come unless the person swore and promised to do everything in his power to alleviate the great enmity that his lady feels towards him. Laudine is so naïve that she promises to do what she can: “ ‘I am prepared,’ her lady replied, ‘to pledge to you my word of honour before you set out on this quest that, if he comes to my rescue, I will do everything he desires, without guile or deception, to reconcile them, if I am able’”(Chrétien 377).  By Lunete having Laudine pledge her word it not only saves Lunete from seeming as if she betrayed Laudine, but also forces her to reconcile with Yvain because she has promised and she can’t break it.  Towards the end of the text when Laudine reconciles with Yvain it seems that she only does it because she promised and she doesn’t want to break her promise:” ‘I agree to this, because I’d be guilty of perjury if I did not do everything I could to make peace between us. So if you please, I grant it to you’ “(Chrétien 380). It seems as though she is settling because she figures not one can measure up to Yvain, and because she needs someone to protect her land. Yvain is so consumed by love for her that it all works they both get what they need from the relationship and it seems that as time goes on that is when they have no other choice, but to fall in love with each other because they both vowed and made promises that they can’t break.  It seems as though their relationship is convenient.

Yvain 2

The speech makes Yvain feel obligated to leave with the King Arthur. Gawain employs to him that if he doesn’t leave he will lose their worth, and honor because of his wife’s. Gawain is basically telling Yvain that he has all the time to focus on settling down and getting old, but right now he is at his prime and that is what is important and then his wife follows:  “A man must be concerned with his reputation before all else! Break the leash and yoke and let us, you and me, go to the tourney, so no one can call you a jealous husband. Now is not the time to dream your life away but to frequent tournaments, engage in combat, and joust vigorously, whatever it might cost you” (Chrétien 326). Gawain is trying to influence Yvain to leave Laudine “just for a while” to go to combat and then return if he isn’t killed to then dream of his life with his wife. Gawain also hints to death when he say “whatever it might cost you” , he is saying come have fun enjoy your last real combats and then if you live through the fights come back and play house with Laudine.  Laudine basically says to Yvain either return to her or have nothing to do with her and death will chose his fate.  Yvain says what if death came upon him and she tells him death will only come upon him if he forgot about her. I wouldn’t want to accept this agreement because although she is letting him go he’s damned either way because if he goes and forgets about her he there is the risk of death, but also he loses her, because she won’t take him back so it’s like Yvain can’t win either way. Yvain acts the way he does to Laudine’s messenger because the fact that he realizes that he loses his Laudine, and because he would be the cause of his own death. He vowed that he would return to him lady in the time she request him, but he stayed while beyond that and he broke his promise and he set himself up for death. Laudine told him if he remembered her he wouldn’t have to fear death, but if he forgot about her then he shall never return and she would curse him for being deceitful.  Yvain realized that he rather go crazy and become a lunatic before he killed himself because he couldn’t bring himself to do it. By Yvain running of in the woods and becoming savage I think it was a way of him punishing himself, but also just breaking free from everything like combat, and being a knight and just being able to be free without anything. We get to see Yvain adapt and change as a character because not only does his look change, but his outlook on life beings to change.

Yvain

     

The reader seems to be thrown into the story. Without the prologue it’s hard to determine the hidden message in the story. With Erec and Enide Chretien uses the prologue to send a message to the reader. In that prologue it was like he was saying don’t be deceived by the boring boy meets girl theme, because it’s more to the story than just that. The fact that Chretien doesn’t use a prologue for this romance seems to be because there wasn’t really a journey, it wasn’t something that he experienced with the character it was more so Calogrenant telling a tale of how he was defeated on this journey.  The journey doesn’t truly begin until Yvain goes to avenge his cousin’s shame. Chretien seems to be letting the reader make their own assumptions about this romance because he doesn’t use the prologue. The prologue for Erec and Enide was used as an introduction before the drama, but with Yvain the story begins with the main action and drama. Since there is no prologue it could simply mean that there is more to the story than just the romance and so he tries to show this by not just focusing on the romance its self, but the other elements that the story is composed of. In away Calogrenant story seemed to act as the prologue for this tale because he tells how he defeated the knight, but he also says: “Lend me your hearts and ears, for words that are not understood by the heart are lost completely” (Chretien 297). It’s like he is saying you need both heart and ears to listen because your ears just receive information and holds it for a little while your heart receives information and contains and digest it. This could have some deeper meaning or relevance to the rest of the tale, and in a way he is also talking to the reader saying how we need more than are ears, but also are hearts because this story isn’t just about listening and taken in the tale, but it’s about the experience and the emotion that the tale evokes in the reader.

Erec & Enide 3

     Throughout the text we see this buildup of events and battles that Erec go through. In each battle there is this heroic, divine tale of how Erec single handily slain worthy knights of distant lands. When first looking at each event it seems as though Erec is trying to prove himself and the fact that he is still a worthy knight, and has not lost his prowess.  But then I begin to look at the way Chrétien makes Erec this sort of supernatural being, the way he praised by the people, and the way people sort of embrace and admire him. It’s like throughout the text Erec develops into an idol: “They bore the body away to Limors and took it into the count’s palace. All the people followed after them – ladies, knights, and burghers. In the middle of the great hall, on a table, they placed Erec’s body laid it out, his shield and lance beside him. The hall filled up; the crowd thronged: everyone was pushing to inquire what grief this was and what the source of wonder was” (Chrétien 95).  Chrétien doesn’t say knight who was causing this grief, but he says “source of wonder” like he is referring to some sort of marvel, or miracle. Erec’s body was taken to a place where no one knew of him, but yet people of all ranking gathered and rushed to see his body and stand around him observing him. Erec’s death has some aspects of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ: “In the midst of these words and cries Erec regained consciousness, like a man who awakes from sleep […] ‘Away! Away! The dead man!’” (Chrétien 96, 97). Throughout the text Chrétien sort of makes these parallels between Erec and Jesus Christ. Through this Chretien shows the relevance of the text.

Q. How does Chrétien use this theme deity to show the relevance of the text?

Erec & Enide 2

1.      We see Enide emerging just after she is married to Erec. When Erec received Enide and she was named by her proper name which was given to her at her baptism that is the first time we learn her name. In the first half of the text Enide seems more reserved and quiet, almost this unrealistic character because we don’t have much information about her, but the fact that she is poor and beautiful. Enide name was enclosed so all the reader knew her by is “the maiden “or when someone is referring to her beauty. In the second half Enide seems to emerge, and there is this sense of who she really is, and her thoughts.  Enide really seems to emerge after her and Erec have sex: “the love between the two of them made the maiden more bold: she was not afraid of anything; she endured all whatever the cost. Before she arose again, she had lost the name of maiden; in the morning she was a new lady” (Chrétien63). After this Enide becomes this new outspoken women who is no longer a maiden, but she is Enide. We get to see this transformation with her character, and this is all coming from the love that Erec showed her.

3.      Erec intention for taking Enide with him seems to be his way of trying to prove himself by flaunting his manhood, and knighthood. It’s also a chance for Erec to show Enide and to prove to others that he is no coward and he still has his skill and is the best knight in the land. For Erec it seems to be a journey for his ego, reputation, and renewal of his name and deeds. When he travels it seems that he tries to do things and help people who will give him homage. He tries to do things that will make him seem heroic when tales are told about it. On page 92 when he saves Cadoc from the two giants he says I want nothing of you, but for you to go to King Arthur and say that he sent them and then he kind of adds on and tells them don’t be afraid or hold the tale of how I saved you from two giants. Erec seems to be trying to show everyone that no matter what he still has his skills and he is no coward, but it seems that he’s so over board with it that he is willing to die just to prove that he is a knight till the end.

Erec & Enide

4.         The second contest (the sparrow-hawk) is a chance for the men to redeem themselves and their names, but it really wasn’t a competition because no one wanted to really step up and battle the knight that Erec had ran into earlier in the woods. It seemed as though the festival was a matter of anticipation. Everyone would go not to battle, but it with this hope or eagerness that someone would step up to this knight and challenge him.

   To me the sparrow-hawk contest is similar to the white stag tradition that King Arthur wanted to revive. Both seem to emphasize the importance of beauty, chivalry, knighthood, and honor. For the knights there name and reputation is at stake. They can either earn honor or they can lose it and bring shame upon themselves and their name. For the women it is a matter of beauty, fairness, esteem, and being worthy of such praise within the land. It is also a chance for the men to kind of prove their manhood and prowess.

5.         The scene when Queen Guinevere dresses Enide seems to imply the making of her into a woman. When she dresses her it’s like she is transforming her, Enide tells them to give her old clothes away, as she drapes on these luxuries clothes, gems, and gold. Enide goes from poor to royalty. The more Queen Guinevere dresses her the more her beauty increases and she becomes nobler.

   The dress seemed to represent the life and the things that she had to look forward to. It represents her change, she already had the looks of royalty, but the clothes enhanced her beauty and made her seem more pleasing and honorable. Enide didn’t deny any of the clothes but instead took them. Erec seems to embrace her beauty for him it is something that is dreamlike, and unnatural. Erec found her beautiful even with the worn out clothes. The clothes that Queen Guinevere gave her only enhanced her beauty and made her regal. Erec saw something that it took silk fabrics, gems, and gold for others to see; to him she was already a fit to be a queen.