I
"The ball is round, a game lasts 90 minutes, everything else is pure theory. "
- Josef (Sepp) Herberger (1897-1977)
This line is also a part of the sequence that opens Run Lola Run (w./d. Tom Tykwer, 1998).
II
The film however open with another Sepp Herberger quote:
"Nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel"
After the game is before the game.
Before this game there was another one. After this game there will be another one.
Some say that the complete "ball-is-round" quote was: "The ball is round so that the game can change direction..."
again:
The ball [earth] is round, a game [life] lasts 90 minutes, everything else is pure theory.
The ball is round so that the game can change direction...
After the game is before the game.
III
Once, in the film a desperate Lola asks "What should I do? What should I do?"
...and eventually answers herself "I'll just keep running..." [...for it's the best she could do.]
Life's getting tough, the ball is round, before this game there was another, after the game is before another, what should I do?
The best that I can.
So off we go!
