Neoformalism is presented as a fitting solution to overcome a separatist conception of music and film. After a presentation of the tenets of the neoformalist approach, the focus is narrowed on how it can be applied to the analysis of music in films (by focussing on the motivations and functions that music can have as one of the interdependent filmic devices) and why its application is fruitful (it allows for a consideration of the full gamut of roles that music can have, including the more humbly formal ones that are typically eschew in other more interpretation-oriented approaches).