1. Introduction This essay aims to compare and contrast French and Russian cinema during the period. It has been structured to provide the reader with appraisals of a broad range of notable French and Russian films that have been analysed under four topics: 1. Earlier Developments 2. Relation to Country's Culture 3. Acknowledgement Abroad 4. Modern Changes in Film. Because most movies are shot with English dialogue, Unfortunately, this means that the artistic views, interesting ideas and different techniques that are displayed by foreign filmmakers often go unnoticed by their English speaking peers. This essay aims to highlight the important developments, movements and influences present in historic French and Russian cinema. In order to give a broad overview of the industries as a whole, this essay pinpoints eight chosen films, two representing each topic, one Russian, one French. It is the aim to give a short background of each film, followed by examples of how the film is relevant to its topic and backed up by citations and references from both literature and the internet. While each topic paragraph will clearly identify its main French and Russian film before going into detail; however, some supplementary films will be included in certain topics for deeper comparison purposes. The first topic “Early Developments“ will provide an informative look at the major film movement of the French New Wave and the important artistic development of the Soviet Montage Theory. There will be a discussion of one representative film from each movement. It will be argued that while Russian filmmakers were developing theories to standardise the art, the French were pushing boundaries and trying to break the standards of film. However, these opposing views to film production and the ways in which they were carried out carry many similarities which will also be demonstrated. "Relation to Country's Culture" will aim to show the respective position of film within each country and how film can influence and be influenced by its nation's culture. There will be an example of each nation's reaction to popular, home-produced films. There will be a study of the box office figures for each country, which will be related to the country's size and number of cinemas, for both domestic and Hollywood productions, in order to numerically represent the popularity of cinema in each country. Next, "Acknowledgement and Success Abroad" will explore both France and Russia's ability to have their films hold a place on the international film stage. There will be an examination of a particularly successful French and a particularly successful Russian film in attempts to learn more about their success worldwide and what caused it. In this section, there will also be a look at the presence of French and Russian actors, actresses and directors in the international market. The final topic “Modern Changes in Film“ will first of all provide a separate overview of modern topics and techniques that are apparent in domestically produced French and Russian films. There will be a study of a representative film for each country. There will then be a comparative discussion of modern eccentricities that are seen in both modern French and Russian films. There will also be a short view of the importance and availability of modern, digital technology such as CGI in domestic French and Russian cinema. 2. Earlier Developments - French New Wave and Soviet Montage Theory 2.1 French New Wave French New Wave cinema is a blanket term used to describe a prominent group of French filmmakers that were active in the late 1950's and 1960's. They were well known for their self-conscious rejection of classical cinematic form, experiments with editing, unique visual style, their unprecedented methods of expression and work around social and political upheavals. Following World War I, France was left in a poor financial state that affected many economic areas, including the country's film industry, which reverted to a dependence on narrative and classical cinema that was evident in the years before the war. This sparked rebellion in critics' circles. The development of the New Wave is often attributed to Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, and Jacques Rivette, who began as film critics at the influential French magazine Cahiers du Cinema. The magazine was not happy with the prospect of falling back on the timeworn methods of classical cinema, instead wanting to move forward and develop their art. "Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer, Chabrol and Rivette [became] five French filmmakers who, despite evident differences manifest in the more than one hundred films they have completed in the last twenty years, nevertheless share a basic attitude towards the art of film which unites them as a group and separates them from the majority of their predecessors  (Monaco 1976, preface). Together in their critique, they developed "La politique des auteurs", referre