Film Criticism: Strangers on a Train and Run Lola Run

Introduction

There has been an increasing number of watchers and listeners across the globe. This is done to be sure, and there exist a significant people who would underrate the intrinsic value of a film. Nevertheless, we are increasingly living in a community that is dominated by images and films that come to us through the televisions or over the internet. For this reason, it should not be a surprise that Hollywood has been in the foreground to ensure that the watchers and listeners alike are satisfied with what they receive. This is in line with the fact that movies have become a significant part of the culture than it could be imagined. Strangers on a Train and Run Lola Run are some of the best psychological crime and suspense movies that have thrilled movie lovers' decade after decade. These movies emphasised the disillusioned psychological conditions of its characters in different contexts.

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Strangers on a Train

This is a famous psychological crime film that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and hit the theatres back in 1951. Numerous film scholars have over the years considered the movie inferior to other Hitchcock's films, but it is evident that the storyline is captivating and involves two people in a train and talking about the executing a murder (Hitchcock, "Strangers On A Train"). What makes a significant difference to other movies even within Alfred Hitchcock's canon is the captivating idea at the heart if it which, is the motif of double, the central battle of good versus bad in every human brings as well as the technical skill we grew with when talking about the works of the British top-rated commercial artists. The suspense in the movie Strangers on a Train is very powerful and can be felt across each scene, and the acting is superb.

The layers of the film categorise it as a fast-paced thriller that viewers can return to again and again. The writer has focused both on the plot and the character. The focus in on the main character who is attracted to another man and shows his obsession with criminal activities. Even though not directly stated, there exists no obvious insinuation to homoerotic appeal. The criminal aspires to become the other man and assumes the other identity. What is more is that the director and the writer portray the main character as gay criminals in an aim of suggesting how the criminal life lead from restrictions on homosexuals and assuming the normal point of view gay. In other words, the author shows how violence and criminality can move from the repressive sexual norm. The director utilised some of the most creative shots in the scene at the carnival. At this point, Bruno stalks Miriam and her friends, then follows them to the tunnel of Love ride. In the tunnel, the director applied trailing shot and films the shadow of people in a boat. At this time, the shadows are used to make it seem like Bruno is close to them. The camera then shuts at the end of the tunnel and Miriam is heard screaming (Hitchcock, "Strangers on a Train"). Off-screen space is utilised to make the viewer believe that Miriam has been attached giving uttermost suspense and at the same time providing the viewer the perception of criminal activity. Later on, Miriam re-appears.

The director has used the most creative shots to highlight on Miriam's murder. Her spectacles fall then the camera observes. As Bruno struggles Miriam, the spectacle fall and the viewer sees the incidences through the lens of the glass. As a result, the image enlarges and becomes blurred, giving the sense of bizarreness and terror of the events. These spectacles then become a fundamental element of the movie

Run Lola Run

The film is a story of a murderer directed by Tom Tykwer and is an exciting work in European cinema. The success is linked to the personality of Franka Potente as Lola and the narrative verve that grabs the viewer's attention from start to finish. The director has told us that the spur of the film was a woman running and from this, he came up with the concept of reversing the format of the movie. The twenty-minute action is stretched out to fill four times the extent rather than comprising a bigger story into regular feature length.

In the movie, we see three different possibilities in which there is either loss or gain of several seconds that lead to different outcomes in various characters lives. In the movie, every reality begins with the same issue where Lola's boyfriend is in need of some amount of money within a time span of 20 minutes or he is killed(Lola's boyfriend was involved in a crime). At the end of the movie, however, it is hard to shake the slithering feeling that many points were abandoned at some point (Tykwer, Run Lola Run). This is because Run Lola Run played most like a pro-feminist style.

The process of disillusion is a major theme of the play. In every aspect of the alternate realities, Lola's naivete and hope in true love is what motivates her commitment to different felonies and misdemeanours all to save the boyfriend. Despite the events of the various realities in the movie, Lola is not satisfied. This means that regardless of how things transpire the emotional results is the same: the dissolution in true love that motivated Lola at the beginning. The entire movie is a psychological thriller which is fascinating and worrying in equal measures. Nevertheless, the disillusionment is a moving growth that was not explored fully and is rooted in unprocessed forms of codependency that are shared between Lola and the boyfriend.

Conclusion

The two movies Strangers on a Train and Run Lola Run are some of the best psychological crime and suspense movies. There are numerous incidences of intellectual challenge incorporated with page-turning suspense and physical violence. For strangers on a train, the writer has focused both on the plot and the character. The focus in on the main character who is attracted to another man and shows his obsession with criminal activities. He applied the most creative shots to highlight on Miriam's murder with the eyeglass which, is the fundamental element of the movie. Run Lola Run is another psychological thriller that narrates of a girl (Lola) who want to save her boyfriend from being killed. She has to search for a specific amount of money to keep him. Disillusion has been presented as the central theme of the movie, revealing fascinating and unpredictable narrative about love and some actions that can change a life. At some point, it's just minutes which decide over life and death.

Work Cited

Hitchcock, Alfred. "Strangers on a Train". 1951. film.

Tykwer, Tom. "Run Lola Run". 1998. film.