Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Electroma / Daft Punk’s Electroma / France / 2006

Two rather fashionably-dressed robots enter a Ferrari and drive around a Nevada desert. And for about fifteen minutes they continue to drive. They pass a man on a tractor; he is also a robot. Eventually, they drive into a small town. All of its inhabitants – children and adults alike – are robots.

From the start Electroma would seem to be a film about insularity. I interpret it as positing a future in which the technological singularity has occurred, and Daft Punk has propagated their likeness around the globe. (And in this future, incidentally, no one listens to Daft Punk.) There is no room for prejudice, no conflict of any sort, just a contentedness so consistent and muted that a word is never spoken, which I find odd considering the film has four screenwriters. Despite this, the desire for change is manifest, and the two robots in the Ferrari (referred to as Hero Robots #s 1 and 2) enter a pristine lab at which their helmet-like heads are covered in gloop and sculpted into human faces. And as “humans” they’re frightful: their heads abnormally large, and their countenances (which I imagine are modeled after Daft Punk’s alter-egos, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo) disturbingly cheery. Plus, they don’t look like robots, so naturally their fabricated form introduces, if not encourages, persecution, persecution being a human flaw.

This robot/human conflict is manifested in much of Daft Punk’s music (this is not to mention the fact that the act consists of two guys dressed up like robots), and Electroma is a natural extension of such. This, I think, is most fascinating because this film has none of the anthemic melodies or rhythm that otherwise distinguish them. I’d even venture to say that the film is determinedly boring—had Gerry contained an extended close-up of a vagina this would be pretty much the same movie with robots.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: 35mm print
28 Feb 2008 6:35 PM | Comments (1)

Comments / 1 total / Submit Comment

1. Marina / 28 February 2008 / 8:15 PM / URL

   This came to town earlier this year and it sold out all 10 screenings. I must admit I’m not so upset that I missed it (though the trailer looked fantastic).