Published in · 3 min read · Jan 31, 2017
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Run Lola Run is an interesting movie to observe color theory in because of Lola’s eye-catching choice of hair color. Much like Leelo from Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element and Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, characters with visual oddities like unusual hair color usually cement their image into the viewers’ consciousness and mold the overall aesthetic of their persona. Lola presents an interesting stimulus throughout the movie with her warm-toned, vibrant red locks, but the symbolism within the choice of the color in particular may expand on the movie’s thematic elements. Red is commonly known as one of the three primary colors, but there are deeper significances within its bright tones. According to most color theorists, “Red is the color of extremes. It’s the color of passionate love, seduction, violence, danger, anger, and adventure. Our prehistoric ancestors saw red as the color of fire and blood — energy and primal life forces — and most of red’s symbolism today arises from its powerful associations in the past” (Source: colormatters.com). Since this movie deals with danger and emotional passions, the choice of reds for Lola’s hair might have been entirely intention on either the part of the director or cinematographer or even stylist.
This still exemplifies the overall color mixing of the movie. The background or foreground tends to consist of muted neutral colors, while Lola’s red hair remains the pop of energetic color. Even down to the clothes these two characters wear tend to be plain, basic and ultimately of neutral color like white or brown or grey. This aids the audience’s focus to go straight to Lola and her colorful hair, which makes her the object of desire. Both characters are evenly placed within the center of the shot, but because of the red pop of color, the optical focus is Lola. Since Lola is the main subject of the film, it can be assumed that this is done intentionally. Throughout the film, bright pops of colors are used and not only with the use of Lola’s hair. For instance, in the beginning when Manni is one the phone with Lola, the bright yellow of the phone booth is shown within the frame with Manni in it and contrasts against the dull tones of his outfit and telephone. On Lola’s end, we see the red of her telephone and the red of her hair against the dark background of her dimly lit apartment. Therefore, color is a very important aspect and element utilized within the frames to make the film, as a whole, visually striking.
Lola and the color red is an interesting comparison because in some ways Lola functions as the personification of danger and seduction. She seems to invite conflict throughout the film because of her connections to her male counterpart and the red hair reflects the same. Since red is the color of passion, anger, love and danger, Lola could very readily be the manifestation of these elements for Manni. In the still, we can see that he himself is very much muted in comparison to Lola. This suggests that for Manni, Lola is the center of his worldview and thus the center of the optical focus. In between the two figures, the viewer can see the lines of the street leading to the zenith of the background. In photography, this tactic is called leading lines. “Leading lines refers to a technique of composition where the viewer of your photos attention is drawn to lines that lead to the main subject of the image. A leading line paves an easy path for the eye to follow through different elements of a photo. Usually they start at the bottom of the frame and guide the eye upwards and inwards, from the foreground of the image to the background, typically leading toward the main subject” (Source: digital-photography-school.com). In this example, the eyes isn’t led to Lola, our focus, but it does lead the viewer deeper into the frame after Lola’s hair catches their initial focus.
