To a great extent, the story of French filmmaking is the story of moviemaking. From the earliest flickering images of the late nineteenth century as well as the many important technical innovations - which in France sometimes preceded, and often paralleled, the work of Edison and early British, German, and Russian inventors and artists - through the silent era, the Surrealist influence, the Nazi Occupation, the glories of the New Wave, on into the 1990s and beyond, Remi Lanzoni examines a large number of the world's most beloved films against the backdrop of their often turbulent times.