This article proposes that cinema, as a form of aesthetic experience, shows the relationship between art and politics that emerges in modernity and that unfolds new modes of perception and sensitivity in opposition to a representative art regime. First, we characterize the way in which cinema exhibits a way of understanding and interpreting the arts according to what Jacques Ranciere calls “the aesthetic regime of images”. Secondly, we address two specific examples that illustrate the relationship between art and politics within cinema: on the one hand, we will consider Europa ‘51 by Rosellini and on the other, Juventude em Marcha by Pedro Costa.