On the cusp of the twenty-first century, the notion of art as revelation of reality held sway in film aesthetics and criticism. Where did this seemingly naive belief in the vocation of art originate, what sustained it, and how did it shape the work of filmmakers, as diverse as Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, and Abbas Kiarostami? These questions launch this book’s exploration of the revelationist tradition from the 1950s to the early 2000s, revisiting a formative period in film history – from Italian Neorealism and the Nouvelle Vague to political modernism – and assessing its lasting impact on contemporary cinema. With the passing of its last major figures, Godard and Straub, in 2022, a critical reassessment of this tradition is timely.