Listening to more Nouvelle Vague cover versions

My current in-car listening are three albums by Nouvelle Vague.  Many if their cover versions have grown and grown on me over the last week or so - for instance, the superb version of Echo and the Bunnymen's All my Colours

But most recently, the outstanding track for me has been their version of Dance with me - originally an absurd track by Lords of the New Church.  There is a marvelous video for this on Youtube that features film from John Luc Godard's movie, Bande a part, which has been synced with the music, and features the three main characters in the movie doing a ridiculous dance together in a cafe.  Not sure if this is the official band video or not.

So Nouvelle Vague issue an album named after a Godard movie, with Godard one of the leading lights of the nouvelle vague filmmakers in France, and possibly illustrate one of their songs using a classic nouvelle vague film.  All very odd.

I saw the film as a double bill with Godard's A bout de souffle ("Breathless") in London when I was a student in the early 1980s.  About time I watched some more movies like this.

The girl in the film is called Anna Karina and was married to John Luc Godard in the early 1960s.  She was actually Danish though, not French.  The hat is very cool, as is the black ribbon in her hair.  I particularly like the little jumps they do.  In the movie, the dance is referred to as a Madison, but actually isn't a Madison.  This scene was said to have influenced Quentin Tarantino and the dance sequence in Pulp Fiction.  Great stuff.