In all respects, 1928 can be considered as a stage in the increasing relationship between cinema and society in France. The State liberalized the status of the cinema and expressed a new trust in cinema as a conveyor of enhanced national identity. The association Les Amis de Spartacus, product of the French communist movement, succeeded in expanding the spread of censored Soviet movies, largely beyond the field of militantism. A highly politicized trend also emerged among cinema critics themselves, defending free judgment against the laws that cinematographic capitalism imposed on them. Society is moved by a sudden political activity. But the end of the year was characterized by a backlash that annihilated the previous efforts: the consensus over the liberalization of the status of the cinema rapidly unravels, and one notes again the basic mistrust of public administration about motion pictures. Les Amis de Spartacus did not survive the change of course that the PCF International imposed on the French Communist Party nor the establishment of the “class against class” tactics. Finally, the political movement that had appeared among the cinema critics faded away behind a new trend, a more intimate kind of criticism. However, this “€œcritical” moment in 1928 deeply marked the history of the relationship between cinema and society.