We review the films of Daft Punk. Check it out.
The French-based band Daft Punk, comprised of Thomas
Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo in the form of robot stage personas,
are among the most popular and worldly successful electronic music groups of
all time. From their breakout into the
house techno scene with Homework to
the blockbuster success of Random Access
Memories, the dynamic duo revitalized the early 1980s synthetic sound
perfected by the likes of Giorgio Moroder and Tangerine Dream. Lesser known outside their devoted fanbase,
however, were three films devised by the two in conjunction with their musical
expression. The first two followed in
the footsteps of traditional music videos where their third and first official
debut as writer-directors seemed to deviate from expectations. Whatever your stance on this iconic purveyor
of pop dance music is, here is our take on the very brief and unusual film
career of one of France’s most exciting fusions of house and synthpop.
D.A.F.T:
A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes (1999)
Around the release of Daft Punk’s Homework emerged this unusual music video compilation which became
known as D.A.F.T.: A Story About Dogs,
Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes.
While many of the videos included in this set wound up in the Work of Director sets released by Palm
Pictures for directors Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, this was the first
official music video collection released by Daft Punk. Encompassing the videos for Da Funk by Spike Jonze, Around the World by Michel Gondry, Burnin by Seb Janiak, Revolution 909 by Roman Coppola and an
exclusive video for Fresh marking an
early directorial effort by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo, D.A.F.T.: A Story About Dogs, Androids,
Firemen and Tomatoes also contains exclusive mixes of some of their songs
by Armand Van Helden, Masters at Work, Ian Pooley and Roger Sanchez.
 |
| "Has anyone seen Howard the Duck? I kinda wanna hang out." |
The first video, Da
Funk (renamed Big City Nights by
Spike Jonze), depicts an anthropomorphic crippled dog carrying a crutch and a
boom box blasting Daft Punk’s Da Funk. Almost completely incongruent to the rhythms
of the song, the video is a whimsical hunk of quirk following the efforts of
the fully animated dog to date women, who don’t seem to make much of the fact
that they’re carrying a conversation with an oversized hound. Near the end of the compilation, the tale of
the dog is bookended by the short video Fresh
with the dog being directed on the set of a music video shoot by Spike Jonze
before driving off with a new date. In
between is Michel Gondry’s choreography video for Around the World, with several robot-dressed dancers performing
numbers that would make Bob Fosse blush.
The other videos for Burnin
and Revolution 909 are really strange
for starting out as dance videos taking place outside clubs before abruptly
segueing into the lives of firemen or a montage of shots of a tomato
patch.
More of a DVD compilation than a feature film,
although the menus give viewers the option to view them all in sequential
order, D.A.F.T. represents the
dynamic French electronic music duo in the early stages of finding their stage
personas. Multiple-angled footage of a
live performance show the two onstage without the aid of their air conditioned
robot suits they ordinarily perform in. D.A.F.T. is essential to Daft Punk
completests but also early enough in their career that the robot rockers weren’t
as quick to announce themselves as stars of the show. Years later, a greatest-hits CD/DVD
compilation would include the much darker and disturbing videos for Human After All (The Prime Time of your Life is totally horrifying) as well as a new
video for the remix of Robot Rock,
but only included some of the videos and extras included in the D.A.F.T. set. Still a cool thing for fans to have, and the
remixes and exclusive videos make it a must have.
6/10
Interstella
5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003 – directed by Kazuhisa
Takenouchi)
Daft Punk have always been a band who likes to try new
things—both musically and with their music videos. With their concept album Discovery, the teamed up with iconic
Japanese anime director Leiji Matsumoto (Space
Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy
Express 999) and Toei Animation to produce a full-length animated film
comprised of all the songs. Kazuhisa Takenouchi directed the film, but the look
is pure Matsumoto. There is no dialogue in the film (other than the lyrics to
the various songs) and it plays out like an extended sci-fi themed music video.
 |
| "We are interplanetary Smurf whores. Wanna party?" |
Matsumoto’s character designs have a distinct look to
them and he is fond of waif-like slender people with baroque-styled curls and
swirls incorporated into their outfits and hairstyles. When most people think
of 1970’s era anime, this look comes to mind. However, in Interstella 5555, Matsumoto takes a sleeker and more futuristic
approach and it makes an interesting mix of retro and space-age
fashioning. The animation is somewhat
limited, as is common in Japanese anime, but the art design and music makes up
for the lack of frames and overall smoothness. Everything goes with the beat of
the music and they did a great job of interpreting the themes of each song to
the on screen action.
The story itself is abstract, but everything moves
along at a quick pace. The running time is shorter than normal because it only
encompasses the album track length—they didn’t add too much side story and it
goes straight from song to song with no breaks in-between. If you are a fan of
Daft Punk’s music, then this will appeal to you more, as Discovery is considered one of their best albums. It signaled their
transition from French house to the more pop-sounding disco house and every
track is happy and catchy. Anime or
animation aficionados would probably enjoy it as well, but not if they are
looking for a more complex or involved plotline.
7/10
Electroma
(2006 – written and directed by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo)
The creative team behind Daft Punk, Thomas Bangalter
and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo, stepped back from their keyboards to behind
the cameras for their first feature length film as a writing-directing team, a
minimalist exercise concerning the duo’s robot personas’ quest to become human
known as Electroma. Largely filmed in an open desert, ala
Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger meets
Gus Van Sant’s Gerry, Electroma is either one of the most
original science fiction based music video films of the last decade or one of
the most aggravating expressions of artistic pretension to ever hit the silver
screen. While yours truly is all for
artists of all mediums trying their hand at something out of the ordinary, as
with actors taking a hiatus from being onscreen to sitting in the director’s
chair, Electroma represents that rare
instance where the musicians behind Daft Punk should have stuck to making
music.
 |
| "Ok. Things are just getting really weird and really starting to get kinda trippy. I wanna go home." |
Opening on an elongated shot of the two robots driving
in a desert before happening on a small town populated by other robots sporting
the Daft Punk helmets, where they adorn grotesque human masks over their robot
masks. Told without dialogue or an overt
plot, Electroma mostly consists of
extended wide shots or tracking shots of the robots either being adjusted in an
electronic facility or simply walking in the desert. If this isn’t frustrating enough for seasoned
Daft Punk fans, not a single iota of their music is used in the film. Instead there’s a collection of various music
pieces that barely sound electronic in the least. There’s one shot of a robot walking into the
sunset until it disappears as a mirage, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of
Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny when
the protagonist and his motorcycle disappear after driving off in the
distance. Although defenders will make
the argument it’s an experimental work trying to tread off the beaten path,
what’s the point of trying if it ultimately results in a messy lab of toxic
chemicals from shattered test tubes?
While there are a couple of shots of one of the robots
self-destructing that are kind of interesting, overall Electroma is like a Dadaist joke on the loyal fans supporting the
dynamic duo ever since they hit the house techno scene. When I saw this at the limited Main Art Theatre
screening, I lost count of the walkouts of irate fans donning their Daft Punk
apparel, others dressed for the dance floor, leaving in a disappointed
huff. People expected a sonic experience
of some kind akin to listening to Homework
or Discovery, and instead got
this bone dry collegiate portrait of two robots taking a really long promenade
that would bore even the most hardened Andrei Tarkovsky fans. Thankfully, Bangalter and De Homem-Christo
felt the vibes and returned to music with their massive blockbuster pop album Random Access Memories. Originally Electroma was slated for a Blu-Ray release, but weeks before the
film was released on DVD, the Blu-Ray was cancelled. Maybe distributors felt the production costs
of a Blu-Ray would be superfluous, as only the most devoted aficionados of the
French electronic group would fork over their hard earned money for this flat
stillborn.
3/10
-Andrew Kotwicki
-Michelle Kisner