SUMARIO: Introduction : a fundamental continuity // What happens to an apocalypse deferred : Coppola, Herzog, and Schwarzenegger as readers of Wagner’s Ring / The imperfect Wagnerite : Luis Buñuel and romantic surrealism / «A film should be like music» : Stanley Kubrick and the condition of music / Too soon, too late, and still to come : Jean-Luc Godard and the ruins of classical music / Before a winter’s journey : Michael Handke’s critique of film music in The piano teacher // Conclusion : Modernist cinema’s family tree