Abstract: Sartre’s film theory was gradually enriched and improved with the advancement of his philosophical research and literary practice. The development of his film theory consists of three phases. In the first phase of “phenomenological psychology” in the 1930s, he started with “imaginaries”, pointing out their psychological and symbolic characteristics. During the second phase of “existentialism” in the 1940s, he held that imaginaries predated existence and generated the authenticity and meaning of the nature of life through superimposition. During the third phase of “Marxism” from the 1940s to the 1960s, he believed that the essence of film was speaking to the mass, so film production and dissemination acquires the features of industrialization and socialization.
Key words：

Key words:  , Sartre’s film theory, imagination and intervention, polyphony, mass communication