This course examines key examples of French cinema from 1920 to the present day. In contrast to mainstream cinema, which broadly supports and confirms the dominant artistic norms, the films studied have, at different historical moments and in various ways, attempted to break with tradition and to challenge the prevailing forms, structures and conventions of the genre. From this perspective the course will focus on the distinct contributions of the avant-garde and surrealist films of the 1920s, social realist films of the 1930s, the nouvelle vague which began in the late 1950s, and its postmodern legacy in the 1980s followed by a return to realism in the new millennium.