“I made this film in my youth. And the VGIK tutors happened to take it seriously. An impoverished couple: the husband an alcoholic, the wife a washerwoman. He drinks away the pittance she earns. And then a sleight of providence brings them together in a museum where they see a watercolour depicting their shabby house. The laundry is drying on the line and it’s a nice picture. The house they live in looks cosy and friendly, nothing like the bleak prospect they see in their minds. They are overcome by sadness.”