So my favorite Internet cult site had a meme going around the other week, one where people would post a picture of their Favorite Movie Moment.  I was trying to think of what mine would be -- there are so many, how could you choose just one?

And then I opened a late-arriving holiday package this weekend, and found the Criterion DVD of Jean-Luc "Cinema" Godard's "Band of Outsiders."

Of course.  The scene in "Band of Outsiders" where Arthur, Odile, and Franz stand and wordlessly dance the Madison in a half-empty, smoky dive of a Parisian cafe is one of the most enthralling, affecting, and evocative scenes in the cinema.  The movie is uneven in spots, but the knowing tone of the narration and the self-concious, not-afraid-to-be-goofy performances tie the film together amid a fusillade of pop-culture references.

But this scene is the standout, and there's a reason why it's mentioned in every single review of this movie.  Arthur and Franz are vying for Odile.  Ostensibly meeting at the cafe to plan a heist, they're searching for ways to win the girl, but they're not sure how.  Arthur puts on the record, and Franz suggests that they dance.  And what a dance:  they are moving in sync with each other, but these alone-in-a-crowd "outsiders" never touch during this one unbroken shot.  Each of them dances well, of course, but the way in which each of the actors dance reveals things about each of the characters they portray.  And to underline this point and make sure we don't miss it, Godard cuts the music in a bravura gesture, leaving the soundtrack solely to the stamp-stamp-snap-clap of the dance, and provides a dry voiceover:

Now is the time for a digression in which to describe our heroes' feelings.

Arthur keeps watching his feet, but his mind's on Odile's mouth and her erotic kisses.

Odile is wondering if the boys notice her breasts moving under her sweater.

Franz thinks of everything and nothing.  He wonders if the world is becoming a dream or if the dream is becoming the world.

And you truly see it in the actors' performances, both in the entire movie and distilled down in this one dance.  This scene, the linchpin of the film, shows us everything we need to know about the characters:  the slightly sinister, handsome Franz, feeling his way toward Odile and along the plot.   The dandyish Arthur, raised on a steady diet of American westerns.  He thinks he's tough, and he's almost smart enough to figure out exactly how tough he is, but not quite.  He's feeling his way, too, but he's not quite as blithe as Franz.

And then there's Odile, luminously played by Anna Karina.  Karina was 23 when this was shot, but she looks like she's sixteen or seventeen, that age where girls come to their terms with womanhood.  She's wearing schoolgirl clothes -- the plaid skirt of a Catholic-school uniform -- but she's conscious of "her breasts moving under her sweater."  She's bored and is caught up in the fantasies of these two roguish wannabes who have trouble seeing beyond the latest imports.  And she's never looked better or more alluring, moving in concert with people whose casual, offhanded actions will irrevocably shake her life...but that's for tomorrow.  She's wearing Franz's hat...and just why is it that a woman wearing a man's hat is so sexy?  (She knows this, but I don't think she knows why either.)

The joy and gusto of this scene are palpable, and I'll never forget seeing it for the first time projected on film after seeing it on video a hundred times.  I swear everyone in the theater must have been holding their breath, not wanting the moment to end.  Is the film becoming the world, or is the world becoming the film?

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