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“Il était une fois” traces the evolution of narrative music from the origins of cinema and television to, more recently, video games.

Music has always played an essential role in the seventh art, long before the advent of sound films. Charlie Chaplin was already building his films around precise orchestration, conceived through dance, rhythm, speech, and sound.

In 1908, Camille Saint-Saëns became the first major composer to respond to a commission for a film score. The birth of orchestral film language saw, in the United States during the 1930s, the emergence of major composers from Eastern Europe such as Max Steiner, Miklós Rózsa, and Franz Waxman.

From the golden age of cinema to contemporary blockbusters, film music has continually reinvented itself through brilliant composers who have left an indelible mark on our memories: Georges Delerue, Nino Rota, Vladimir Cosma, Lalo Schifrin, John Barry, Jerry Goldsmith, Alan Silvestri—to name just a few. I am obviously forgetting some. There were also legendary partnerships such as Bernard Herrmann & Alfred Hitchcock, Ennio Morricone & Sergio Leone, Henry Mancini & Blake Edwards, and John Williams & Steven Spielberg/George Lucas. And more recently, Danny Elfman, Michael Giacchino, Alexandre Desplat, and Hans Zimmer, among others.

Each era, each decade, each technological revolution has given us major works with which we grew up and which continue, time and again, to move us deeply.

It is this fabulous story that I recount for you, guided by a singular approach: one unique musical composition for each year. Needless to say, the choices were often difficult—sometimes even impossible. But what a pleasure it is to discover or rediscover films through their soundtracks!

I wish you a wonderful year 2026, filled with images and music!

Start the journey !

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