The History of Sound (M)

Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor deliver luminous performances in this sweeping, elegiac romance set against the backdrop of early twentieth-century America.

Adapted from Ben Shattuck’s celebrated short story, the film follows Lionel, a gifted farm-boy with synesthesia (a phenomenon that causes sensory crossovers), and David, a fellow music student he meets at the New England Conservatory in 1917. Their connection deepens through a shared devotion to folk music, yet the onset of World War I pulls them apart with David sent to the front lines and Lionel back to Kentucky. Reunited after the war, the pair embark on a journey through rural Maine, capturing voices and songs on fragile wax cylinders, preserving a vanishing cultural heritage even as their own lives diverge.

Crafted with breathtaking restraint, Oliver Hermanus’ film of quiet textures and haunting silences, sees landscapes echo memory and sound itself becomes a vessel of longing. The History of Sound is both an intimate love story and cultural elegy, a tender meditation on music, memory, and the ways love endures through loss.

Cast: Paul Mescal, Josh O’Connor, Chris Cooper

Director: Oliver Hermanus

★★★★ "With no tricksiness, no amplification and no unnecessary embellishment, it is allowed to resonate quietly and linger in the mind and ears, with no false notes" FINANCIAL TIMES

★★★★ "This beautifully performed, restrained drama explores music, love, and loss." COMMON SENSE MEDIA

★★★★ "Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor shine" DISCUSSING FILM

★★★★ "[a] gently observant approach to an understated story...meaninful and strongly moving" SHADOWS ON THE WALL