Textbook on the course "Theory of Cinema." The author - a well-known theorist and historian of cinema - sets out his concept of cinema as art of the twentieth century; evaluates its role in the spiritual life of modern man. The boundaries of the study are quite wide: from classic cinema to modern. The author's attention is focused on the problems of the relationship between cinema and television, "high" and "low" genres, the modern style in cinema, the method of cinema and its differences from the method of theater, literature, painting and music. For students of theatrical and cinematic universities.