History. 1896-1929: the silent period ; 1930-1939: the 'early classic era' - from sound to the Second World War ; 1939-1945: the war years ; 1945-1959: le cinéma de papa ; 1959-1968: the New Wave ; 1968-1981: the New Wave (postscript), realism and comedy ; 1981-2001: heritage, the look, women, Beurs, Banlieue, Le Jeune Cinéma. -- Theory. 1900-1945: early film theory ; 1945-1960: André Bazin and the politique des auteurs ; 1950-1970: sociology and structuralism ; 1968-1970: ideology and suture ; 1970-1980: psychoanalysis and post-structuralism ; The space(s) of cinema: Daney, Burch and Gardies ; The movement(s) of cinema: Deleuze ; The sound(s) of cinema: Chion. -- Practice. -- Writing about French films. Essays ; Sequence analysis. -- Appendices. Table 1: History of the French cinema (stars, movements, directors) ; Table 2: French theorists of the cinema ; Table 3 and Figure 1: numbers of spectators 1945-1999 ; Table 4 and Figure 2: numbers of films produced 1945-1999 ; Table 5 and Figure 3: share of the French market 1945-1999 ; Table 6: best-sellers 1945-1999 ; Table 7: the top 30 French films 1945-1999 (by number of spectators) ; Table 8: French prizes 1945-1999 ; Table 9: Oscar for Best Foreign Film won by French films ; Table 10: key technical terms in English and French.