1.) According to Cousins, who was the leading exponent of French Impressionist Cinema?

Abel Gance. He wrote, produced, and directed the french epic film Napoleon. The film is recognized as a masterwork of fluid camera motion, produced in a time when most camera shots were static.

2.) What is Surrealist Cinema and who were its leading directors in the silent era? 

Surrealist cinema is a modernist approach to film theory, criticism, and production with origins in Paris in the 1920s. David Lynch was described as The First Popular Surrealist.