The business was set in a dark room at night, where Eggy and Sally were trying to break into a safe. There were staccato lines interspersed with the movements of the action. Once they had got inside the safe, they had to pile the contents of boxes into a sack. But at that point they discovered they had forgotten to bring it, so ended up having to load wads of money and bundles of jewellery into Eggy’s character’s beret and down Sally’s underwear. They then had to walk out of the apartment appearing deadpan.

Dark curtains blacked out the windows, and the lighting rig was arranged to make it seem as though the only light came from the occasional use of a torch and matches.

Everything technical which could go wrong had done so. The matches would not strike, the prop torch had flickered and cut out mid scene, then the safe numbers had all clicked correctly but the door was jammed and had to be levered open by the prop man. They’d tested it a few times, then gone for another take during which a helicopter had come over, flying low, and drowned out the sound.

This was followed by a near-perfect take, but one minute before the end of the scene the film cartridge had run out. So it was back to square one. Next take, a light bulb popped; after that when Sally pulled on the door handle, it came off in her hand.

Carpenters arrived and made good and the crew went for yet one more take. But by now Sally had gone word blind. Every time one of her lines came up she wasn’t sure whether she had already said it, and then after a minuscule pause she got the line wrong. When Eggy came over and whispered, ‘It’s fine, love, just relax,’ it had made her feel even worse.

Everyone was sent back to their start positions for the thirteenth time, and the clapper boy knelt before her and said: ‘Scene ninety, take thirteen, let’s hope this one is lucky for some.’

The rest of the crew guffawed. Daniel yelled, ‘Cut!’ and told everyone to pull themselves together. He reminded the crew that the shoot was already three days behind and Marina Martel would be arriving in France any day expecting results.

Sally glanced over to Daniel and could see that he was scared. She herself was terrified. By taking this job she had so much to lose. She could not foul it up. For sure she had to please Marina Martel. Sally was quite aware that, as Marina was the producer, the rushes would be sent to her each night for comment.

And at the same time, if the film was an embarrassment Sally would also have risked her friendship with the gang at La Mosaïque. And they were her everyday life. If she lost them, living in Bellevue-sur-Mer could become intolerable.