Electroma is an unusual film to say the very least. I went to see it just after Brighton pride, at a late night screening in The Duke of Yorks. I had been drinking all day, I was very tired and could barely see. I wanted to see this film though, it looked beautiful from the trailers, and I was in the mood for something where you didn’t need to think. A film with no dialogue, where nothing happens seemed ideal.

Perhaps because I was expecting so little to happen, I was one of the few people who found there to be plenty of action in the film. In fact, I hardly fell asleep at all for the first half an hour - quite a feat considering the state I was in. Its about two robots, Daft Punk no less, who for all we know actually are robots - have they ever been seen without their masks? Instead of revealing the plot of the film as everyone else deemed it appropriate to (and there is a plot, whatever you may be told), I will just say that its a study of what it means to desire to be human, if your a robot.

Plot aside this is a sumptuous film to look at, a desert landscape peppered with robots and perfect buildings. The desert views recall El Topo, the stark whiteness of one of the locations recalls Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, the town with its picket fences, Desperate Housewives and the opening scenes of Blue Velvet. The giant vagina must be seen to be believed, and the final scenes are, without giving anything away, among some of the most memorable visually I have ever seen.

One of the more disappointing elements to this film is the lack of music, much of it is in complete silence, the rest using obscure pieces by other artists. The film as it stands would not have suited Daft Punk’s musical style completely, but you would have thought they could get something in there. I suppose they wanted to be viewed as filmmakers and not creators of their own music video, for that we have Interstella 5555.

If you don’t mind slow films, and enjoy the visual experience as much as the rest of the components which make up a film, this is one to watch.

Trailer

Spoilers!!! Parts of the film

Other Daft Punk

This entry was posted on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Films. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.