Daft Punk’s Electroma
You might know them as the robot masked DJ duo from the future, and with the release of their exciting new album Random Access Memories, we thought it would be great idea to feature their film, Daft Punk’s Electroma. That’s right, besides creating some of the world’s most widespread and inspiring music, the robotic duo also enjoy directing from time to time.
Daft Punk, or by their real names Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter are credited for directing their own music videos ‘Fresh‘, ‘Robot Rock‘ and ‘Technologic‘, but after initially shooting footage for their the song ‘Human After All‘, they decided to extend the shooting into a feature length, which was supposed to be extended videos for their album ‘Human After All‘. The odd thing about all this, is that their music is not featured in their film.
Released at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006, the film revolves around two robots (the two band members) and their quest to become humans. Set with a very, very slow pace, the plot is one that you would think fits in a short film, but Guy-Manuel and Thomas manage to extend each shot into a timeless manner. Something that some might find as excessive dragging, others will be persuaded by the extended scenery and calming flow of the movie.
We were not nervous – making a full-length movie was like a dream. We never planned for it to happen, but after we directed the videos for our last album we decided to keep on working. We were in the shooting dynamic, so the movie came naturally. We didn’t think too much. Whether it’s making music or directing a video, whatever we do we do it quickly. When we have a good work dynamic we don’t need to ask too many questions of each other
-Excerpt from Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo on From the desert the robots come on theage.com
The movie starts off with the Dafts embarking in a 1987 Ferrari 412 with its obvious ‘HUMAN’ license plate. The robots drive through an empty desert road, which might possibly be my favorite scene from the film, and in my opinion would cue up wonderfully with their new track ‘Giorgio by Moroder’, which seems to be written exclusively for Ferrari drivers.
The film delivers careful meanings and thoughts to each single shot, which is a shadow style of the attention to detail brought to their music. The eerie drive through the little town filled with robots depicts a ton of cliches that any small town has to offer, from the couple gardening in some robotic fashion to the inter-robotic wedding.
With this film, we had the same approach as when we started making music. Create without any rules or standards. Take a free approach to something new that you don’t really know, and that you learn from scratch.
-Thomas Bangalter from Mixmag.com
After they enter the Apple-like white room where their transformation begins, with an alienating but marvelous contrast giving the film its iconic poster, the film gets down right weird, unexpected but also amusing kind of weirdness. With not a single word throughout the entire film, the story is told through melting faces, angry robots and gigantic dune vaginas. Yes there is a rather long shot within the landscape desert dune panoramas that looks awfully close to a pan in between a woman’s legs, I might be way off on this one and please let me know if I am, but have a second look yourself at 47min02.
Daft Punk fans will rejoice, but will be saddened at the end of the film. Luckily the film was not attached to their musical careers and the bots live on to keep making some new age music, you can download their new album Random Access Memories now on iTunes.
Let’s face it, the bots should not give up their music careers to start making films, their own music videos they have made do have a particular style, but cannot compare to their clip Around The World created by mastermind director Michel Gondry. Having said this, Daft Punk has managed to create a rather impressive full length feature film with such little cinematography experience, now we just need to figure out if we think of this because we absolutely love anything these guys create, or because they actually have some pretty impressive and creative talents under those helmets.