Mitry poses the question: If cinema is a language, can it be understood through the techniques of linguistic analysis? In effect, he interrogates semiology by representing its basic proposition and approaches, comparing them with: "scientific humanist" aesthetics. Mitry's study ranges across film language, its syntax, grammar and code, signs and signification, montage, images, narrative structures, symbols and metaphors, and the rhythm of film.

Black and white illustrations.