Franka Potente

Lola needs to reach Manni, and Potente makes that need plain before the film has much time to explain either of them. In Run Lola Run (1998), the sheer effort of her running keeps the danger immediate, however conspicuous the cutting becomes. We were anxious for her because she made reaching him feel more important than keeping up with the film’s tricks. The relationship with Manni, played by Moritz Bleibtreu, is lightly drawn, but she gives it enough feeling to sustain a chase. A film this busy could easily lose our interest in its people; with Potente, it does not.

Tom Tykwer wrote Run Lola Run for her, and it remains the clearest reason for our enthusiasm: his ideas about chance are thin, but his leading actor makes the predicament matter. She gives him determination without making Lola seem invulnerable, so the speed does not become merely exhausting. Their reunion in The Princess and the Warrior (2000) offers a more subdued Potente as Sissi, while retaining the emotional intensity. It is a useful reminder that physical energy need not define every part she plays. The contrast helps explain why we value the collaboration: Tykwer does not require her to repeat the performance that brought her to wider attention.

Blow (2001) took her into Hollywood, followed by Marie Kreutz in The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004). The Bourne role brought wider recognition, though a supporting part does not always give her enough to work with. In Che (2008) and The Conjuring 2 (2016), she can seem sidelined, a frustration when her directness is what we have come to value. Those appearances are a poor place to start with an actor who can make a sketchily written relationship feel urgent through the effort of trying to reach someone. Start with Run Lola Run, then choose The Princess and the Warrior for the quieter performance.