A large subject—the late-1970s dawn of electronic music in France as a popular movement—becomes a surprisingly winning, slice-of-life miniature in Marc Collins’ Le choc du futur (The Shock of the Future). Largely set in a Paris apartment housesat by Ana (Alma Jodorowsky), the story follows 24 hours in the life of its struggling heroine, a jingle writer, as she attempts to get a foothold in a new music frontier resisted by her agent and a music industry gatekeeper. Both of the latter are middle-aged men, a detail that contributes to a noxious strain of sexism that courses through Ana’s day like oncoming traffic.
Part of that casual oppression is a steady strain of sexual aggression, from the manager’s persistent cheek-kissing (way beyond customary greetings and goodbyes) to a hirsute audiophile who wants a kiss on the lips in exchange for the loan of a beatbox. Jodorowsky subtly portrays Ana in such moments as uncomfortably dealing with these problems as the price for doing business as a woman, particularly an ambitious woman who needs certain professional men to recognize her genuine talent. (Not every male character is like this. There’s an interesting, praying mantis-like older guy whose only interest is in playing new records for Ana, and a decent fellow whose obvious infatuation with her is layered within his strenuous support for her artistry.)
With wall-to-wall banks of recording studio gear in front of her, Ana strains for inspiration as an electronic-music composer in the days before the genre’s sound is more than the niche province of a few fans. Twiddling knobs and interweaving blips and pops into engagingly dense structures, she is guided by intuition yet dissatisfied with results until a woman singer-lyricist (Clara Lucian) she meets blends her own sensibilities with Ana’s, and the result is something special.
What makes Le Choc du Futur unique is the absence of big pivotal moments in the script. There are transitions, but they are so low-key as to be almost missed. From the moment Ana awakens in the film’s opening minutes through her stymied efforts at composing something original through a party where she debuts a new song, the action blurs together without a sense that a page is ever turned. Somehow that makes Le Choc du Futur pleasing and unpretentious, a small study of a much bigger picture. Strongly recommended.