The 10th arrondissement, the city’s transport artery. An overboiled egg for breakfast in a tiny kitchen. The apartment window frames a shifting Paris, the eye horizon drawing ever narrower. A couple begins their day with unresolved resentments and simmering irritations. The day unfolds, and Odile meets a stranger on the street who’s ready to do anything for her.

Rouch’s best known work is the emblem of cinéma vérité – Chronicle of a Summer (1961), a documentary stroll-about, directed with sociologist Edgar Morin. Perhaps to some the opening frames, shot on 16 mm, will be reminiscent of the Latvian documentary and fiction fusion Apple in the River (1974) by Freimanis, but the film soon expands the myth of fantasy to such a degree that stepping outside becomes an existential choice: reality or fantasy?