The History of Sound: A Tender Love Story Premieres at Cannes
Oliver Hermanus delivers an intimate portrait of love and loss in his latest film, competing for the Palme d’Or
The History of Sound, directed by Oliver Hermanus and starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, had its world premiere at the 78th Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2025, where it competes for the prestigious Palme d’Or. Based on Ben Shattuck’s short story of the same name, the film presents an achingly beautiful exploration of love, memory, and the songs that bind us together across time.
A Story of Music and Memory
Set against the backdrop of post-World War I America, the film follows David (Josh O’Connor) and Lionel (Paul Mescal), two young men who meet in 1917 while studying at the Boston Music Conservatory. Their relationship deepens during a folk song collecting expedition through rural Maine in the summer of 1920, but their bond is tested when David is called to war, leaving Lionel to grapple with loss and the weight of unspoken words.
The narrative structure weaves between past and present, with Chris Cooper portraying an older Lionel haunted by memories and searching for answers about his first love. As Hermanus explained during the film’s Cannes press conference, the story explores “the negative space in our lives, the relationships we didn’t have, the things we didn’t say.”
A Celebration, Not a Repression
While early comparisons have been drawn to Brokeback Mountain, Mescal was quick to distinguish their film during the press conference. “I personally don’t see the parallels at all,” he stated, “other than the fact that we spend a little bit of time in a tent.” The actor emphasized that while Brokeback Mountain deals with repression, The History of Sound “is fundamentally pointed in the opposite direction” – it’s “a celebration of these two people’s love, not a film about their repressed relationship with their sexuality.”
This distinction is crucial to understanding Hermanus’s vision. The film doesn’t position homosexuality as the central conflict; instead, it explores the universal themes of timing, loss, and the assumptions we make about having more time with those we love.
Music as Emotional Architecture
Folk music serves as both the narrative backbone and emotional core of the film. The soundtrack features traditional Irish and American folk songs, with particular attention paid to how melodies travel between characters and across time. As detailed in the press conference, the songs “Silver Dagger” and “Across the Rocky Mountains” create a musical dialogue between the characters, with David’s bar room singing eventually circling back to Lionel through family connections.
Mescal, who performs several musical numbers in the film, worked with musician Sam Amidon during preparation. The actor noted that the traditional Irish music that influenced American folk was already familiar to him, making the songs feel like “music that I grew up being familiar with.”
A Five-Year Journey
The film represents a particularly meaningful collaboration for its key players. Hermanus developed the project over five years, beginning work on the script with Shattuck during COVID-19 lockdown from his home in South Africa. For Mescal, this extended relationship proved invaluable: “It’s the first time I think I’ve worked on a film where there’s been a line of communication and friendship that has built prior to filming commencing.”
This deep familiarity allowed for an unusual level of trust on set. Hermanus described calling Mescal directly during filming to capture spontaneous moments of natural light, with the actor running from his trailer to lie in pools of sunlight streaming through farmhouse doors.
Technical and Artistic Challenges
The production faced several logistical hurdles, with filming originally scheduled for 2022 but postponed due to scheduling conflicts with the leads. When production finally commenced in February 2024, the team achieved remarkable feats of location work, transforming New Jersey locations into convincing Maine and Kentucky settings.
O’Connor learned piano for his role, and his scenes were filmed first before he departed to promote other projects. The actors’ chemistry, built over years of friendship, translated into what Mescal described as a “very light and boyish” atmosphere on set, despite the weight of the material.
A South African Perspective
Hermanus brought his South African background to bear on the project, particularly in expanding the story to include sequences on Malaga Island, dealing with racial dynamics and community displacement. As someone born under apartheid, the director felt a personal connection to stories of “interracial communities being marginalised and being kicked out.”
The Darkness and the Light
Perhaps the most striking aspect of The History of Sound is its sophisticated approach to grief and memory. Hermanus draws inspiration from Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro paintings, noting how “the rich darkness behind the figures” makes them “pop out.” Similarly, the film finds beauty in what Mescal calls “the negative space in our lives” – the relationships not taken, the words not spoken.
The Lake District sequence, one of the last filmed, exemplifies this approach. Lionel’s pilgrimage to a place David once described as “the most beautiful place he’d ever seen” becomes both a romantic gesture and a confrontation with loss. Unable to express his grief openly, Lionel can only say he’s “a bit embarrassed that I got lost.”
Critical Reception and Distribution
Following its Cannes premiere, The History of Sound has been acquired by Mubi for North American distribution and Focus Features/Universal Pictures International for international release. The film’s 127-minute runtime allows for the patient, contemplative pacing that has become Hermanus’s signature.
The History of Sound stands as a mature meditation on love’s complexities, elevated by nuanced performances from Mescal and O’Connor and Hermanus’s assured direction. In an era when LGBTQ+ cinema often focuses on struggle and persecution, the film offers something rarer: a celebration of queer love that finds its tragedy not in societal rejection, but in the universal human experience of time’s inexorable passage.
As the film competes for the Palme d’Or, it represents not just a career highlight for its participants, but a significant contribution to cinema’s ongoing exploration of love in all its forms.
Editor in Chief of Ikon London Magazine, journalist, film producer and founder of The DAFTA Film Awards (The DAFTAs).
