In The History of Sound, Oliver Hermanus’ latest feature, what promises to be an exploration of art as the foundation for deeply erotic and personal bond turns out to be an emotionally inert and muted tale of frustrated lives.
Grade: B-
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American theatrical release poster
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And considering that the movie, which world premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Fest (In Cometition), stars two of the most handsome and skilled actors working today, Paul Mescal and Josh O’Oconnor, makes this experience all the more disappointing
Written by Ben Shattuck, the multi-period narrative is based on a pair of short stories: “The History of Sound” and “Origin Stories.”
The movie, which is too tastefully shot and too elegantly crafted for its own good, spans three sub-periods, beginning in 1917, then jumping to 1919-2021, before ending in 1980.
In 1917, Boston Conservatory student Lionel Worthing (Mescal) meets fellow student David White (Josh O’Connor) at a pub, and they instantly connect through their love of recording folk music of their countrymen in rural Maine.
As the two become closer, the U.S. gets involved in World War I, and David is drafted, while Lionel is deemed ineligible due to his eyesight.
Lionel returns to Kentucky when the Conservatory closes, setting music aside in order to tend to his family’s farm after his father’s sudden death.
Cut to 1919, when David writes Lionel of his return from Europe, inviting him to assist him in a Maine college funded trip to collect folk songs on wax cylinders.
The two reunite and travel around, capturing folk songs from various walks of life and renewing their relationship.
Eventually, they part ways again as David must return to work and Lionel plans to travel to Europe. Lionel corresponds with David, but stops writing after a year as he doesn’t receive any response.
In 1923, Lionel, now living in Rome, tells his lover Luca of his dissatisfaction singing in a local choir and of his decision to take a job at Oxford University, which ends their relationship on bad terms.
A year later, Lionel serves as the school’s choir conductor and gets involved with a student socialite, Clarissa Roux. The relationship with Clarissa also end abruptly, when Lionel must return to the U.S. to comfort his dying mother.
After putting his family’s affairs in order, Lionel travels to Maine to find David, only to learn that David had died after their trip and that his department never commissioned the trip, which leaves the location of the wax cylinders unknown.
Belle reveals she knows who Lionel is, how she and David became involved and how David’s death was a suicide as a result of shell shock from the War. She returns Lionel his old letters and promises to send him the cylinders, if and when found.
Lionel mourns David by visiting his favorite locations from youth and recounting what endeared him to music, particularly “The Unquiet Grave.”
In 1980, Lionel, now an ethnomusicologist promoting his newest book, receives when a package containing the wax cylinders, including one made on the day of David’s death. On the recording, David apologizes to Lionel and thanks him for their time together, before singing “Silver Dagger,” the song Lionel sang to David when they had first met.
In its good moments, The History of Sound offers a visually stunning journey through its melancholic exploration of human connection through music. On thse scenes, the movie navigates some broader issues, such as the nature male intimacy, repressed sexuality, remembrance of important past chapters, and cultural preservation.
The attention to detail in the set design and costumes is strikingly authentc. The camera offers authentic tableaux in atmospherically powerful images.
Irish actor Paul Mescal plays the sensitive hero as convincingly as he did in his Oscar-nominated performance in “Aftersun” and following appearances in such diverse movies as “All of Us Strangers” (in which he played a gay man) and “Gladiator.”
Josh O’Connor, perhaos best kniwn for the TV series “The Crown,” who is considered one of the best British actors of his generation, also cuts a strong screen presence.
An openly gay filmmaker, South African Harmanus had made two bolder queer movies before History of Sound: Beauty and Moffie. On paper, the text is suitable to his temperament and skills, so I wonder why he has accorded it such a restrained perspective, looking at his characters strictly from the outside.
Indeed, the drawn-out pacing, excessive run time, and lack of explicit sexual encounters deprive the well-intentioned picture from generating genuine dramatic interest in the proceedings; I doubt that even the core audience of gay men would be able to relate to such a detched portraiture.
It’s too bad as The History of Sound could have been a companion piece to Ang Lee’s 2005 Oscar winning illict gay romance, Brokeback Mountain, which starred Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhal.
Cast
Paul Mescal as Lionel Worthing
Chris Cooper as Older Lionel
Josh O’Connor as David White
Molly Price as Lionel’s mother
Raphael Sbarge as Lionel Worthing Sr.
Hadley Robinson as Belle Sinclair
Emma Canning as Clarissa Roux
Emily Bergl as Mrs. Roux
Briana Middleton as Thankful Mary Swain
Gary Raymond as William Swain
Alison Bartlett as Samantha
Michael Schantz as Bob
