The philosophical and aesthetic ideas of phenomenology have beenpresent in cinema theory since the silent period. Methods of phenomenologicaltheory can be found in the analysis of the visual aspects of films or the artisticstyle of their authors. The essay analyses signs of phenomenological thinkingin the audiovisual aspects of films - a little studied but significant area ofdirectorial aesthetics. Its theoretical and methodological foundation includesthe phenomenology of Edmund Husserl and elements of phenomenologicalaesthetics in the works of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Roman Ingarden. Takingthe work of a significant representative of auteur cinema, the Austrian directorMichael Haneke, the author explores cinematic variations of the concept ofphenomenological reduction, the method of “perfectly clear apprehension ofthe essence” and the layered semantic structure of the film. Conclusions aredrawn about the presence of typological signs of phenomenological thinkingin the work of other filmmakers, such as Robert Bresson and Jean-Pierre andLuc Dardenne. Visually, this presence is expressed in the tendency towardsasceticism and documentarism in the choice of artistic devices; towards thedisclosure of cinematic phenomena (“facts”); and aurally, in the tendencyto minimize off-screen music and get rid of the expressiveness in the actor'sspeech, towards greater semantic significance of intra-frame music, individualsounds, pauses and non-sounds.