In the turbulent sixties, the provocative French film journal "Cahiers du Cinema" was at its most influential and controversial. The first successes of the New Wave by major "Cahiers" contributors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, and Claude Chabrol focused international attention on the revitalization of French cinema and its relation to film criticism; and in the early 1960s the journal's laudatory critiques of popular American moves were attaining the greatest notoriety. As the articles, interviews, and polemical discussions in this volume reveal, the 1960s saw the beginnings of significant new directions in film-making and film criticism - changes in which the New Wave itself was a major factor. The selections, translated under the supervision of the British Film Institute, are annotated by Jim Hillier, and context is provided in his general introduction and part introductions. The book provides an understanding of the important changes that took place in cinema and film criticism in the 1960s and beyond.