The Great Scenes # 5: Band of Outsiders (1964)

The Cafe Dance

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

French New Wave cinema has produced a bunch of iconic films and made the names of quite a number of directors. One of them is Jean-Luc Godard. This is one of his most famous films. Band of Outsiders is about two crooks who manage to convince a beautiful young student to tag along in their different hijinks. The film goes to all sorts of different narrative directions with generous sprinklings of references in pop culture and literature. One of its most indelible scenes is the impromptu cafe dance by the three main characters. It is arguably one of the coolest scenes ever filmed and still holds up to this day. This scene and the movie itself is influential to this day. Quentin Tarantino, for instance, named his production company after the French title of the film (A Band Apart) and his famous dance sequence is partially inspired by the scene you see above. The film itself also inspired a currently famous clothing line.