While Daft Punk’s Electroma offers some magnificent bits you might want to bring a book for the stretches in between
Daft Punk’s robotic odyssey rewards the patient viewer
Electroma is a film conceived and directed by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo the French electronic music team commonly known as Daft Punk. Central to the band’s image is the fact that they insist upon dressing up as robots during live performances and public appearances. It doesn’t seem that this is because of shyness or an intense sense of privacy — it’s more like they just enjoy looking really awesome and screwing with peoples’ minds. In a musical setting such idiosyncrasies are nicely offset by catchy music and over-the-top visual effects. In Electroma no such reprieve is offered. Fans expecting a lighthearted romp scored by Daft Punk songs will be sorely disappointed.
The movie which is completely devoid of dialogue moves very slowly and doesn’t attempt to cover much ground plot-wise. First we see some robots get into a car and drive through the desert for a long time. Nothing really happens but it looks awesome. Then they get to a town and all the people there are robots too but they’re dressed in human clothes. Then they go to a lab of some sort and there’s a trippy sequence where people in clean suits pour latex over their robot helmets and give them grotesque human-esque faces.
When our heroes strut back to town their faces start melting and the other residents are apparently pissed off by the attempted humanization. At this point the movie sort of derails and they end up wandering through the desert for about half an hour which is deadly boring. Reportedly at the Cannes Film Festival screening this sequence incited a mass exodus from the theatre. Too bad for those losers: they missed the outrageously awesome ending where one robot blows himself up (finally!) and the other smashes his own helmet (sweet…) and uses a shard of glass from his visor to set himself on fire ( yes! ).
Much ado has been made of the cinematography in Electroma and it is a very good-looking movie. From panoramic views to close-ups of the robots everything is imbued with a glowing sense of artistry. Unfortunately the average Daft Punk fan — this author included — has neither the expertise nor the desire to pore over revolutionary lens techniques. The soundtrack is enjoyable and eclectic featuring pretty much every style of music except French House but quite sparse offering about as many songs as there are plot points in the film. Ultimately Electroma has a lot to offer for those patient enough to sit through the long indulgent stretches between the interesting bits.
