La Horse (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1970) is the fourth feature film with music by the duo of Serge Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier. This film was an opportunity to test their “contrapuntal” conception of film music: psychedelic sounds when we are in the French countryside, extroverted rhythms when the main character is gruff and impenetrable, a lively and driving musical character when anguish, danger, and crime are omnipresent. The director was initially surprised, but ended up deciding to incorporate this music into his film and was even pleased with it. Using two tools – the continuum of dramatic music/image shift and the continuum of kinetic music/image shift – we show how this music ultimately serves its purpose remarkably well, offering an overall meaning that is precisely in line with the director’s aim to “uproot the detective story.”