The French-American perspective – not the only one, of course – is chosen here for reasons of convergence and evidence, and could equally be developed for literary criticism or music criticism (particularly jazz). But, since the “double invention” of cinema by Edison and Lumière, and given the very large number of films and texts, the French-American object is of paradigmatic importance. The emerging dimension of several notions (starting with that of film authorship, the auteur) and the involvement in the debate of numerous intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic is another reason for consideration. The goal of this lecture is to present for the first time the theoretical framework and the historical steps of a five-year research program supported by the Institut universitaire de France (IUF). On the one hand, we have to provide a clear definition of “Critique of criticism” and understand this very peculiar object, devoted to discourse instead of art. On the other hand, the focus has to be placed on different historical examples of writing strategies in the specific field of film criticism.