This essay endeavours to describe and illustrate, by way of examples, the diverse ways in which the cinema can be analysed and transcribed. By varying the work approach methods (by scene, sequence, script, author, etc.), alternating the writing standards and paces (short forms/long forms), modulating analytical and critical perspectives, covering a very wide range of filmmakers and films (from silent films to the latest releases), the author offers readers not merely an illustrated manual of cinematic analysis, but a film poetic, thoughts on cinematic art put into action. It is an art palpable when one is in contact with films, close to what unfolds at the creative core of the moving images, in the transition from one scene to the next, in the way a story is told and directed, in this tense and often mysterious connection between the filmmaker's perspective and the viewer's sensitivity and intelligence.

José Moure teaches Aesthetics of the Cinema at Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. His notable works include: Vers une esthétique du vide au cinéma (L'Harmattan, 1997), Michelangelo Antonioni, cinéaste de l'évidement (L'Harmattan, 2001), (co-authored by Daniel Banda) Le Cinéma, naissance d'un art (1895-1920) (Flammarion, Champs Arts coll., 2008) and Le Cinéma : l'art d'une civilisation (1920-1960) (Flammarion, Champs Arts coll., 2011).