Daft Punk’s ‘Interstella 5555’

“Interstella 5555” is an extended music video that accompanies the entirety of Daft Punk’s 2001 album “Discovery.” If you haven’t listened to “Discovery” yet, some might call it a “seminal” electronic music album. I like the album a lot because it has this rich, otherworldly texture to it, plus its songwriting and structure is really interesting. I would say it’s one of my favorite albums of all time.

“Interstella 5555” is basically an anime, but with no talking, just visuals to accompany the music from “Discovery.” The anime visuals were done by some company. I don’t know what their name is. I’m not sure if Daft Punk had a big say in the plot of the film, or if they just let the other company do it. Either way, “Interstella 5555” is really good.

Although “Interstella 5555” has no dialogue, the plot is pretty easy to follow. It involves these blue creatures from another planet who get captured by humans and brainwashed into being corporate entertainment drones. A common theme of the film is memory, as the aliens turned humans regain their old memories and see them played through the screen, knowing their life will never be quite the same, or something like that. I think the film has something to say about technology claiming our collective unconscious and, like, making it less valuable or doing some evil shit with it.

“Interstella 5555” has a cyberpunk aesthetic to it. Sometimes the aesthetic is dark, dreary, and bleak, but other times it’s quite dreamy and beautiful. The color palettes in this film are absolutely gorgeous, so much so that I think if I think about them any longer I’m going to cry. I’m about to cry, actually. I’m so close to crying. I can feel it coming. Nevermind, I’m not able to cry.

There’s also these Illuminati vibes in the film during the song “Versus Quo,” where the alien species discover the secrets of the human controllers, contained in the numerology of the number “5555.” There’s this scene when an old guy is teaching a little kid to play piano like Beethoven, and then he throws him into a pit of fire. It has something to do with the killing of innocence by the people in power. When I saw this part, I was like, “Oh, this is so relevant. My entire worldview has changed.”

Another thing I love about this movie is the way the music works over it. Daft Punk’s music doesn’t so much take you into the world of the film as much as make you feel like you’re looking at it from a bird’s-eye view. There’s this sense of detachment that the music creates that’s strangely moving. I think it has something to do with technology and distance.

“Interstella 5555” is great. You can find it on YouTube or a bunch of random illegal sites, but they don’t work very well.