what's all this abuut?

Starring Peter Hurteau, Michael Reich. Written by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Thomas Bangalter, Cedric Hervet and Paul Hahn. Directed by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Thomas Bangalter. 74 min. In the Directors' Fortnight.

That Daft Punk's debut as auteurs contains none of the French duo's music is but one of the perverse things about the project. There are still fine tunes to be heard — the soundtrack includes songs by Todd Rundgren, Brian Eno, Sebastien Tellier and Curtis Mayfield — but long passages of the film take place in silence. Despite some startling imagery (especially in the final moments), this conceptually thin tale of two robots who long to be human is stretched to the point of crushing tedium. The influence of '70s touchstones like Zabriskie Point, THX 1138 and Vanishing Point is easy to see, but no one asked Daft Punk to make The Brown Robo-Bunny.