Later, we’ll see passers-by wearing masks – this was obviously shot during the pandemic – and reality has a nasty habit of impinging on these characters’ lives.

Jean is an ex-con and former professional rugby player. He’s trying to set up a sports agency with the encouragement of François (Grégoire Colin), Sara’s ex-lover – who is suddenly back in the couple’s lives after years away.

When Sara sees François again, her heart skips a beat. Dormant feelings for him soon surface.

This love triangle is what drives Both Sides of the Blade, although there is a further subplot involving Jean’s 15-year-old son, Marcus (Issa Perica). The boy, who is of mixed race, lives with Jean’s mother, Nelly (Bulle Ogier), in the suburb of Vitry and barely speaks to his father.

Perhaps it’s this other life that distracts Lindon’s preoccupied character from Sara, as she begins an affair with François. The film’s original French title sums things up nicely: Feu, ou Avec Amour et Acharnement (Fire, or With Love And Fury).

While this is a very adult film – just look at the close-up scenes of Lindon and Binoche in bed, the camera never leering at their bodies but admiring them – it’s not always an easy watch.

Being incarcerated in this hermetically sealed world for nearly two hours is a suffocating experience at times, despite the impressively mature performances of Binoche, Lindon and Colin.

Denis also never fleshes out François as well as she might. Is he even real? Maybe he’s just a pipe dream, a long-lost love from years gone by.