Bring Film Back to Music: Daft Punk and Cinema
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
So, as was declared yesterday, Daft Punk are no more. Clearly, I’m still hurting. The news is not surprising but it still stings. Considering they haven’t released an album since 2013’s Random Access Memories, and they never put out a live album in 2017 (to match the releases of Alive 1997 and Alive 2007 [the latter being my all time favourite live release ever]), it was evident that the robotic electronic duo was moving on to greener pastures (or planets, or motherboards, or something). I consider the four albums they put out to be incredible (yes, Human After All is a bit primitive and easily their worst release, but I consider it criminally underrated), and am obviously a massive fan of theirs. So, it only made sense that I make a tribute to them on here. How does that work? Well, being a fan means I’m very familiar with their connection to cinema, and I know other fans are aware of this as well. If not, let’s break things down.
Daft Punk actually started out as rock band Darlin’, with members Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo being paired up with Laurent Brancowitz (the latter would join indie band Phoenix); a review deemed their music “daft punky thrash”, which was a label that the former two members would cling onto once they decided to explore their use of electronic equipment a bit more. Otherwise, they were inspired by the works of The Velvet Underground, disco, and clearly The Beach Boys (with a band name like Darlin’); electronic music was just something they fell into. They always played the role of the outlier within French house music, to the point of perfecting the style (Homework), expanding on it (Discovery), destroying it to a rudimentary level (Human After All), and rebuilding all of the separate parts organically one last time (Random Access Memory). Of course, each album carries an additional nature. Human After All is barbaric almost like the punk of the duo’s name, but with a soul amidst the mechanical exterior. Random Access Memories is so reminiscent of the Californian bands of the ‘70s.
Of course, Daft Punk’s influences came from everywhere, and that included cinema. It’s obvious to categorize the band as a visual one, especially since they literally have robotic helmets (one that can create LCD words, the other images and colours), and have some of the greatest music videos (more on that on my upcoming Best 100 Music Videos of All Time list), having worked with greats like Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze. Technically, each album cycle had something visual to accompany it. The music videos for Homework were released together as D.A.F.T.: A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes (this isn’t exactly a stand alone film, but this compilation is glorious enough). The reverse idea happened with Discovery, as the film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem made up the majority of the music video content attached to the album (Daft Punk served as producers and co-writers for the film, as well as the provider of its music [obviously]). The most individualistic their visual content became was during the Human After All era, where they had memorable music videos (including the nightmarish one for “The Prime Time of Your Life” that still messes me up), and their passion project film Daft Punk’s Electroma.
Daft Punk in Interstella 5555.
Electroma was as polarizing as Human After All, but clearly the two works went together hand-in-hand, and defined the mission for both projects: human musicians trying to replicate robots trying to achieve the human experience. For the album, the duo had these robots trying to mimic the rock music they grew up on and originally identified with. For the film, we had an arthouse picture built upon minimalism and striking thematic imagery. In the same way that Random Access Memories was trying to take analog music and turn it artificial, this era of Daft Punk searched for life in the digital. I wish that this time period wasn’t so testy with critics, because I would have loved to have seen Daft Punk try even more experiments of this nature (although I can’t complain with Random Access Memories, let’s be fair).
This artistic angle intrigues me, because Daft Punk were clearly creative beyond just being able to make some of the more definable popular songs of the last twenty five years. They also knew how to get creative (hence why I feel like the Human After All era is misunderstood; I see it as a statement more than a series of songs and images). When it comes to contributing to other films, there’s the most well known example of Daft Punk’s musical contribution to Tron: Legacy (one of the best elements of that film, in all honesty). I like Bangalter’s soundtrack for Gaspar Noé’s disturbing film Irréversible more, where he worked with pitch frequencies that were inaudible but would nauseate audiences anyway (appropriate for this kind of a film, anyway). When collaborating with others, the duo were either contemporary and trendsetting (their work with The Weeknd, and whatever the hell was attempted with Arcade Fire’s worst album), or the helped artists achieve their goals of reaching something unique (their contributions to Kanye West’s Yeezus album, for instance).
A scene from Electroma.
Daft Punk always placed their influences on their sleeves, from their homage-carrying uses of samples, to their visual styles of each album cycle. This included the marriage between sound and vision, which is incredibly filmic (also proven by the connection of Daft Punk and cinema). By the time they were ready to release their conclusion, they barely had to make a video for the visual announcement, since they had pieces in place ahead of time: they took a clip of Electroma of Bangalter (played by someone else, anyway) exploding, tossed on a piece of the cinematic “Touch” off of Random Access Memories, and called it a day. That’s all they needed to do to say goodbye.
Even their music at its barest form is somewhat comparable to film. “One More Time” has a three act structure (so does “Too Long” off of the same album, and both songs bookend Discovery). Tracks like “Contact” and “Giorgio by Moroder” literally tell stories at their starts, and have musical accompaniments bringing these words to fruition. “High Life” and “Crescendolls” place you in the middle of settings you had no idea existed. There are many other cases, but I feel I’ve made my point. Daft Punk was such a hit for many, because they were an assault of both sight and sound almost always; their music was colourful enough to conjure images, and their promotional material would always match their latest timbre. As much as Daft Punk made music, I think they were more interested in achieving as much as possible. They were satisfied with what they achieved, and called it quits.
Case in point: Bangalter was a part of Stardust when they released their lone song “Music Sounds Better with You.” The song took the world by storm, and that was that. Stardust was never heard from again. The group disbanded, and Bangalter kept soaring high with Daft Punk (this was after Homework). Daft Punk are ending after winning the highest Grammy honours with Random Access Memories. After making electronic music the best it can be, destroying it, and bringing it back from the dead with analog instruments, where do they go from there? Maybe nowhere. They knew this. It’s a sad day, and I can’t complain, but this legendary duo clearly knew what they wanted to do at all times, and this certainty seeped into all of their mediums.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.