''Bande à part'' () is a 1964

French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

film directed by

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...

. It was released as ''Band of Outsiders'' in North America; its French title derives from the phrase ''faire bande à part'', which means "to do something apart from the group". The film is about three people who commit a robbery. It received positive critical reviews, and its dance scene has been referenced several times in popular culture.

Plot

A young woman named Odile (

Anna Karina Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; September 22, 1940 – December 14, 2019)

) meets a man named Franz (

Sami Frey Sami Frey (born Samuel Frei; 13 October 1937) is a French actor of Iranian Jewish descent. Among the films he starred in are '' En compagnie d'Antonin Artaud'' (1993), in which he portrays French poet and playwright Antonin Artaud, and '' Bande ...

) in an English language class. She has told him of a large pile of money stashed in the villa where she lives with her aunt Victoria and Mr. Stolz in

Joinville Joinville () is the largest city in Santa Catarina, in the Southern Region of Brazil. It is the third largest municipality in the southern region of Brazil, after the much larger state capitals of Curitiba and Porto Alegre. Joinville is also a ...

, a Parisian suburb. Franz tells his friend Arthur (

Claude Brasseur Claude Brasseur (15 June 1936 – 22 December 2020) was a French actor. Life and career Claude Brasseur was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine as Claude Pierre Espinasse, the son of actor Pierre Brasseur and actress Odette Joyeux. He was the godson of E ...

) of the money, and the two make a plan to steal it. Franz and Arthur go to the English class, where Arthur flirts with Odile and asks her about the money. Odile goes home and finds the money in Stolz's room. She then meets Franz and Arthur, and they go to a café, order drinks, and dance. Odile tells Arthur that she loves him, and the two go back to his place and spend the night together. The next day, Arthur's uncle learns of the money and wants a cut of it. Franz, Arthur, and Odile decide to commit the robbery sooner than they planned. The three meet up and run through the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

in record time. That night, they go to Odile's house and find that the door to Stolz's room is locked. Arthur tells Odile to find the key. Franz and Arthur return to the house the following night, and Odile tells them that the locks have been changed. They tie and gag Victoria, before locking her in a closet. Then, they go to Stolz's room and see that the money is not there anymore. They search the house and find only a small amount of cash. When they open the closet to interrogate Victoria, she appears to be dead. Franz and Odile leave, and Arthur stays behind. While driving away, Franz and Odile see Arthur's uncle heading to the villa, and they go back. They then see that Arthur has found the rest of the money in a doghouse. Arthur and his uncle get into a shootout and kill each other. Stolz returns to the house, and Victoria is shown to be alive. Franz and Odile drive off with the small stack of money from the robbery. They flee to South America and realize that they love each other.

Cast

Anna Karina Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; September 22, 1940 – December 14, 2019)

as Odile
ACTRICES *Danièle Girard as English teacher *

Louisa Colpeyn Louisa Colpeyn (24 February 1918 – 26 January 2015) was a Belgian actress. She appeared in more than thirty films from 1939 to 1983. Colpeyn is the mother of writer Patrick Modiano Jean Patrick Modiano (; born 30 July 1945), generally kno ...

as Madame Victoria *Chantal Darget as Arthur's aunt *

as Franz *

as Arthur
ACTEURS *

Georges Staquet Georges Staquet (1932, in Bruille-lez-Marchiennes – 2011) was a French actor. Partial filmography * ''The Day and the Hour'' (1963) - L'aubergiste (uncredited) * '' Bande à part'' (1964) - Legionary * ''Marie Soleil'' (1964) * '' Pierrot l ...

as legionnaire *Ernest Menzer as Arthur's uncle

Production

''Bande à part'' was directed by Jean-Luc Godard and was filmed in 25 days.Criterion Collection DVD book Godard described it as "''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...

'' meets

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

Reception

Film critic

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

described ''Bande à part'' as "a reverie of a gangster movie" and "perhaps Godard's most delicately charming film". ''Bande à part'' is often considered one of Godard's most accessible films;

Amy Taubin Amy Taubin (born September 10, 1938) is an American author and film critic. She is a contributing editor for two prominent film magazines, the British ''Sight & Sound'' and the American ''Film Comment''. She has also written regularly for ''The V ...

of the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

'' called it "a Godard film for people who don't much care for Godard". Its accessibility has endeared the film to a broader audience. For example, it was the only Godard film selected for ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''s "All-Time 100 movies". ''Bande à part'' was also ranked No. 79 in ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010. In tribute,

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...

named his film production company "

A Band Apart A Band Apart Films was a production company founded by Quentin Tarantino, Michael Bodnarchek, and Lawrence Bender that was active from 1991 to 2006. Its name is a play on the French New Wave classic film, ''Bande à part (film), Bande à part'' ("B ...

". It was also Tarantino's favorite Godard film. ''Bande à part'' has a 94% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 7.98/10. The website's critical consensus calls the film "an oddball heist movie with an dark streak that picks apart every rule in filmmaking."

Memorable scenes

When Franz, Arthur and Odile are in a crowded café, Arthur and Odile decide to dance. Franz joins them as they perform a dance routine. The music is R&B or

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...

composed for the film by

Michel Legrand Michel Jean Legrand (; 24 February 1932 – 26 January 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to many son ...

, but Anna Karina said the actors called it "the

Madison dance The Madison is a novelty dance that was popular in the late 1950s to mid-1960s. Description and history It was created and first danced in Columbus, Ohio, in 1957. The local popularity of the dance and record in Baltimore, Maryland, came to the ...

", alluding to a novelty dance of the time. The Madison scene influenced the dance scene with

Uma Thurman Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970) is an American actress and former model. She has performed in a variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films. Following her appearances on the December 1985 an ...

and

John Travolta John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He came to public attention during the 1970s, appearing on the television sitcom ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes ''Carrie'' (19 ...

in Tarantino's ''

Pulp Fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...

''. It also influenced scenes in

Hal Hartley Hal Hartley (born November 3, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and composer who became a key figure in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and '90s. He is best known for his films '' The Unbelievable T ...

's ''

Simple Men ''Simple Men'' is a 1992 American film written and directed by Hal Hartley and starring Robert John Burke, Bill Sage, Karen Sillas, and Martin Donovan. It was the debut film of actress Holly Marie Combs, in a supporting role. It was entered into ...

'' and

Martin Hynes Martin Hynes is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and film producer. Life and career Hynes was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, and has a bachelor's degree in history from Columbia University. Hynes wrote and directed ''The Go ...

' ''

The Go-Getter "The Go-Getter" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United States in the March 1931 issue of ''Cosmopolitan'' (as "Sales Resistance"), and in the United Kingdom in the August 1931 ''Strand''. Part of the Blandings ...

''. In

Roger Michell Roger Michell (5 June 1956 – 22 September 2021) was a South African-born British theatre, television and film director. He was best known for directing films such as ''Notting Hill (film), Notting Hill'' and ''Venus (2006 film), Venus'', as ...

's ''

Le Week-End ''Le Week-End'' is a 2013 British-French drama film directed by Roger Michell and starring Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, and Jeff Goldblum. Written by Hanif Kureishi, the film is the fourth collaboration between Michell and Kureishi, who both ...

'', the principal characters see the dance scene on a TV screen in their Paris hotel room and briefly dance along with it. The final scene of the movie is a longer reenactment in a café after one of the characters plays the music on a jukebox. The entire dance scene was also used as the music video for the song "Dance with Me" by

Nouvelle Vague French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

from their album '' Bande à Part'' (2006). The group took their name from a scene in the film, where Arthur and Odile are walking on a street and pass an emporium with

(New Wave or New Trend) in large letters over the door. In "The Gentlemen's Wager", a 2014 short film made to promote

Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The brand was first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended ...

whiskey,

Jude Law David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972) is an English actor. He received a British Academy Film Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. In 2007, he received an Honorary Césa ...

and a group of dancers perform the Madison dance in order to win a bet.

Emma Stone Emily Jean Stone (born November 6, 1988), known professionally as Emma Stone, is an American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award. In 2017, she ...

Jonah Hill Jonah Hill Feldstein (born December 20, 1983) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is known for his comedic roles in films including ''Superbad (film), Superbad'' (2007), ''Knocked Up'' (2007), ''21 Jump Street (film), 21 Jump Stre ...

, and

Rome Kanda is a Japanese ''tarento'', comedian and actor who resides in the United States. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Born in Kishiwada, Osaka, Japan, Kanda spent his early career as an actor with his debut movie ''Tokyo P ...

perform the dance in "Exactly Like You", the fifth episode of the 2018 Netflix series ''Maniac''. In a later scene, Franz, Arthur and Odile attempt to break the world record for running through the Louvre museum. The narrator informs viewers that their time was 9 minutes and 43 seconds, which broke the record set by Jimmy Johnson of San Francisco at 9 minutes and 45 seconds. The Louvre scene is referenced in

Bernardo Bertolucci Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...

's 1968-based 2003 romantic drama '' The Dreamers'', in which its characters break the Louvre record.

References

External links

* *
''Band of Outsiders: Madison-sur-Seine''
essay by

Joshua Clover Joshua Clover (born December 30, 1962 in Berkeley, California) is a writer and a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California Davis. He is a published scholar, poet, critic, and journalist whose work has been t ...

at The

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bande a part (film) 1964 films 1964 crime drama films 1960s heist films French black-and-white films French crime drama films French heist films 1960s French-language films Films based on American novels Films directed by Jean-Luc Godard Films scored by Michel Legrand Films set in Paris Films set in museums 1960s French films