Run Lola Run avatar selection scene

Lola chooses one among many narrative paths to launch this branch of the story

Run Lola Run is one of several  films from the 1990s to use narrative, temporal and causal structures derived from video games. Sometimes termed "Nintendo narratives," these films are marked by repetitions, multiple timelines, episodic structures, etc. In the case of Run Lola Run, the main character also has the opportunity to redo her mistakes from previous threads of narrative, resulting in multiple outcomes that coexist easily within the film's overall structure. This early scene from the film launches the first of several attempts to obtain a large amount of money in a short amount of time, further invoking the visual rhetoric of videogames by circling the Franka Potente character with the camera while she decides which narrative option to pursue. The image of an implacable head and torso spinning references a convention of video games at the moment of avatar selection; this effect is also seen in Blade Runner when the replicant models are being revealed. Interestingly, at the conclusion of this sequence, the character of "Papa" shakes his head in order to signify that the chosen narrative path is doomed to failure. This strikes me as a convention of neither films nor games, as suspense regarding the pursuit of a desired outcome ordinarily functions to heighten drama within a story.