The screening happens Feb. 22 on Twitch.
Three years ago today, on Feb. 22, 2021, Daft Punk rattled the world with the announcement the duo was breaking up after 28 years together. The French icons have since marked the anniversary of this occasion by releasing a trinket from the vast Daft Punk vault on Feb. 22 in the two years since.
And that date has come around again. To celebrate their unparalleled legacy, the French duo is screening its 2003 film, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, on its Twitch channel today. The screening begins precisely at 5:22 p.m. ET.
Overseen by Japanese animation legend Leiji Matsumoto and written and scored by Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem Christo and Thomas Bangalter, Interstella 5555 is an hour-long “space opera” completing the story begun by the videos of singles “One More Time,” “Aerodynamic,” “Digital Love” and “Harder Better Faster Stronger,” all from the duo’s era-defining 2001 album, Discovery.
In those videos, an evil impresario kidnaps and brainwashes an extra-terrestrial rock group, transforms them into prefabricated pop stars, brings them back to Earth and manipulates them to the top of the charts. Each “movement” of this silent film is accompanied by a track from Discovery.
“The project was born in 2000, when we flew out to Tokyo with an hour of music and our own script,” Bangalter said upon the film’s release in 2003. “Leiji gave us a warm reception, and after listening to the music, he came on board immediately. Three years later, our dream has come true.”
In terms of comeback rumblings, the French duo was said to be playing the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, a rumor that was quickly shot down by their team last fall. The pair did kinda sorta satiate the ongoing public demand for fresh Daft Punk material by releasing the “drumless” edition of 2013 classic Random Access Memories in November, in conjunction with the album’s 10-year anniversary.
