Sound Unseen: Daft Punk's Electroma August 24, 2007

(Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo, USA, 2006, 74 min.)

Strange: a music film by two musicians made without their own music. In its outspoken nakedness and minimal science-fiction style, the film is also visually strange and intriguing. The small yet skilfully spun out story is set in a desert-like American highway landscape of nuclear tests and persistent rumours about UFOs. Two robots would like to become people. That is the whole drama that unfolded in the desert landscape.

The two robots in tight leather Daft-Punk suits and futuristic blindfold helmets are not played by the band members/ directors themselves.The directors previously made two films and also their own music videos, so they are not entirely detached, yet they approached the film medium with an unparalleled degree of freedom, be it consciously or not. Occasionally it is more choreography than drama, so they do stay fairly close to their own métier.So no Daft- Punk Electronics, but a hypnotic mix of Todd Rundgren, Brian Eno, Sébastien Tellier, Curtis Mayfield, Linda Perhacs, Jackson C. Frank and Mathieu Tonetti.

The film has already been compared with Gerry by Gus Van Sant and The Brown Bunny by Vincent Gallo, but that comparison restricts itself to the painterly lethargy and the bareness of the landscape. The tone - both in mood as in music - is literally from another world. If you look at it and hear it that way, they are light years apart.

Official Website: http://www.soundunseen.com/2007/movies/daft-punks-electroma