LONDON – Techno music trail blazers Daft Punk released their new album Alive this week, but the collection of live performances is being overshadowed in London by the buzz surrounding a special cinematic screening of the duo’s Electroma, a strangely beautiful sci-fi styled film.
The two main characters, played by Peter Hurteau and Michael Reich, are based ironically enough on the persona’s of Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter.
In the film, the duo set off on an odyssey to become human, roaming through gorgeous desert landscapes in a sports car on wide-open roads until they come upon a small town (filmed in Inyo County, California) inhabited by a close-knit community of proud robots.
When the ‘townspeople’ discover that their new residents true intention is to acquire latex (yup, latex) faces in a desperate move to humanize themselves, the locals turn on the pair, and things start to get weird. There’s not much action, but the film does seem to captivate the viewer through visual effects.
Electroma, the same name of Daft Punk’s latest worldwide tour, spans an array of film genres but also may have very well created their own genre in an age when technology is expanding our concepts of what film art is and can be.
Surely the film is not going to open in theatres across the U.K., Europe or the U.S., but Electroma is very different, and definitely could turn out to be a cult classic in a decade from now, although it is more likely to fade away as an interesting experiment that does not have a ‘mass’ appeal.
Nevertheless, Electroma is entertaining, a psychedelic cinematic delight, and an accomplished one considering that the tripmasters of techno dance shot the movie with no professional training in film-making.
In fact, in preparation for the filming, Bangalter ordered and read some 200 back issues of American Cinematography and insisted the film be shot on Kodak 35mm stock film.
However dazzling the pictures are, it is not the traditional full cinematic experience film-goers would expect, and for die-hard Daft Punk fans, there is disappointment on two fronts concerning decisions made during the planning and production of the film.
First, and baffling to many when it was first revealed, there is not one note of music in Electroma by Daft Punk.
Huh? Yup, it’s true.
If you listen real closely, or just search around the web, what you can hear is plenty of discontent from fans, but listen more closely and you might hear a lot more of head scratching; simply put, why wouldn’t they use their own music?
Perhaps one explanation is that they did not want to detract from their film work. There is probably also a good chance that in doing so they would miss a major revenue stream by selling a new music on a separate album release rather than add it to a movie where it would also be judged differently by critics.
It is not by mistake that Daft Punk has established itself in dance clubs and raves around the world as one of the most prolific innovators of electronica experimentation.
Secondly, if you like your movies with characters who talk – like actual dialogue – forget it – there is no dialogue in Electroma, which makes the movie more interesting, but it’s a risky move.
Apparently, it’s a risk Daft Punk was willing to take, and for the most part, critics and fans who have seen the film seem to think the guys pulled it off.
But still, the question will not go away:
Why wouldn’t Daft Punk release a film they wrote, directed and produced and not put any of their own music in it?!
Well, as you can imagine, rumors are all over the place as to why Daft Punk’s music isn’t featured in the film, but really, who cares?
Moreover, a smart bet would say that it was a deliberate decision – and a wise one at that – to not include any of Daft Punk’s own music in the film.
Doing so would detract from the focus – which in this case is the film-making, not their music.
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LONDON DAFT PUNK FANS: Sign up to get free tickets for Electroma‘s November 30th screening in London.
View the Electroma trailer now or see it on YouTube.
Take a special peek at a photo still from the movie featuring a beautiful, tall naked women standing in the desert. (What is exactly wrong in the U.S. with showing a nude woman’s body NOT in a violent movie or a pornographic context? Maybe, just maybe, that’s why we have so many crimes against women in this country?)
Need a Daft Punk fix right now?