In the summer of 1960, anthropologist filmmaker Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin set out to chronicle the everyday lives of Parisians through intimate interviews, debates and observation. Artists, factory workers, students, and others open up to share their experiences, fears and aspirations.

From the simplest of starting points, this remarkable documentary—a collaboration between an anthropologist and a sociologist—metamorphoses into a revealing, reflexive study of human behavior and belief. An influential classic of cinema vérité—in fact, co-director Edgar Morin coined the term!