This book is a theoretical study of contemporary film art in terms of the structure of the film and at the same time, is an attempt to establish the term "polyphony" as a key to in-depth understanding of cinema. The book is based on author's PhD thesis in All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography named after S.Gerasimov. Then, in 1998, the thesis was titled "polyphony as the semantic structure of a narrative cinema." For this edition some errors about facts and typing mistakes were corrected. This work will be interesting to researchers and lovers of film art, including those who wish to create films."