Beside a cliff face in a desert landscape, the two Hero Robots (Peter Hurteau and Michael Reich) approach their Ferrari car and climb in, start up the engine then head out on the highway. They drive through the sunny day for miles, across the world until they reach a small town in the middle of nowhere; everyone in the place has either the robot head of Hero 1 or Hero 2, and the townsfolk make up the range of families and tradesmen. But the Hero Robots don't want to be like everyone else: they want to be human...
Daft Punk made their name with groovy electronic tunes, but they were not content to conquer one arena and therefore made films as well. Their first excursion was Interstella 5555, an animated effort that was accompanied by the music from their Discovery album, and you might have expected their second film to be scored with the soundtrack of their follow up, Human After All, but it was not. In fact, the songs on Electroma ranged from Brian Eno to Curtis Mayfield to a spot of classical, with nary a Daft Punk creation to be heard.
The two heroes wear the helmets that the duo, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo, became well known for donning in their guise as musicians, all the better for setting up that futuristic air which suited their projects. But these robots are not happy machines, and wish to make a change, so after they have driven through the town and realised that everyone looks like either one or the other, we see them enter a laboratory and are attended to by technicians who put wax features onto their heads to make them look like people.
It all goes horribly wrong when they get outside into the baking heat, and their faces, which resemble caricatures, begin to melt. Although Electroma could be dismissed as merely quirky, there's a heart of tragedy to it, and it's easy to feel sorry for the robot protagonists as their plans go to pot: both directors appear to hold great sympathy with them. After that, some have pointed out that the film turns into a version of Gus Van Sant's Gerry only with the actors encased in costumes as the two of them wander out into the desert for a trek that takes up the rest of the film.
This is better than Gerry, however, because this has robots in it, and suicidal robots at that. It seems their experiences have overcome them and in its fable-like manner, the film follows them as they hit the road to nowhere (why didn't they take their car?). Along the way are some superb shots of the desert scenery, some taken from above, and one which you may miss, but is actually a silhouette of a naked woman - that's not grass you're seeing. So if there's a playful quailty to some of this, you still have to handle the defeatist ending, and Electroma may be the oddest film about the impulse to self-destruction ever made. Many may find it tedious, but if you adjust to its pace then it can be thoroughly absorbing.
