Movies: The History of Sound (2025) by Oliver Hermanus: The Voice of a Forbidden Love

Why it is trending: Star Power, Festival Buzz, and Quiet Yearning

The film is a melancholy romance tracing the brief, impactful love between two music students—a folk singer and a composer—during World War I and their subsequent trip to record rural American folk songs. It has garnered immense anticipation due to the pairing of prestige actors Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor, often referred to as 'internet boyfriends'. The film's official selection to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival instantly solidified its status as a major arthouse event.

The movie became an immediate talking point for reuniting two of the most acclaimed young actors of their generation, Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor, known for their roles in celebrated queer dramas. Its nomination for the Palme d'Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival cemented its status as a major arthouse event. The film's synopsis hints at a visually rich, melancholic, and deeply moving cinematic experience, making it a highly anticipated release for both critics and audiences seeking meaningful, character-driven dramas.

Why to watch this movie: A Sensory and Emotional Masterpiece

Watch this film for the lead actors' magnetic, restrained performances, its stunning, painterly cinematography, and its unique, profound use of sound as a metaphor for memory and love. The director, Oliver Hermanus, crafts a visually sumptuous film, allowing the emotional weight of the central tragedy to accumulate slowly, leading to a devastating impact. The film also provides a rare historical perspective by focusing on the beginnings of recorded sound and the human urge to archive fleeting moments.

• Exceptional Lead Chemistry and Restraint: The performances by Paul Mescal (as Lionel) and Josh O'Connor (as David) are lauded for their subtle, aching sincerity. Their chemistry sells a love that is largely unspoken and clandestine due to the period, relying on quiet glances and small gestures to convey deep emotion. This masterful restraint prevents the story from devolving into melodrama.

• Unique Focus on Sound and Oral History: The film is a beautiful exploration of the beginnings of recorded sound—using fragile wax cylinders to capture folk songs. This process becomes a powerful, central metaphor, allowing the story to meditate on the human urge to archive fleeting moments and voices, giving the audience a rare historical perspective on how sound technology changed human connection and memory.

• Director's Visual and Emotional Poise: Director Oliver Hermanus (known for Living and Moffie) crafts a visually sumptuous film with painterly cinematography (by Alexander Dynan). His measured, deliberate pacing creates a melancholic, almost hypnotic atmosphere, allowing the profound emotional weight of the central tragedy to accumulate slowly.

Where to watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-history-of-sound (US), https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/the-history-of-sound (Canada)

Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15799524/

Link Review: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/21/the-history-of-sound-review-paul-mescal-josh-oconnor-cannes

About movie: https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/the-history-of-sound

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What Trend is followed? Elevated Queer Romance

This film perfectly exemplifies the modern cinematic trend of Elevated Queer Romance. It distinguishes itself by shifting the narrative focus away from overt homophobia to emphasize universal themes like love, loss, and memory. The trend uses A-list talent and prestige production to reinforce the commercial and artistic viability of complex, character-focused dramas.

• Prestige Production and A-List Talent: The film features high production values, secured a major festival spot (Palme d'Or competition), and stars two critically acclaimed, in-demand actors.

• Decentering of Homophobia: The narrative choice is to focus on internal emotional conflict and personal trauma (like PTSD) rather than making external persecution the primary source of the drama.

• Universal Themes of Love and Memory: The story's core is focused on the lasting resonance of first love, loss, and longing, making the experience universally relatable despite the period setting.

• High Artistic and Visual Sophistication: The film uses deliberate, painterly cinematography and measured pacing, prioritizing emotional nuance and atmospheric depth over broad melodrama.

Movie Plot: The Archive of a Life-Defining Summer

The plot centers on Lionel and David, two music students whose secret romance begins at the Boston Music Conservatory in 1917, only to be interrupted by the events of World War I. After the war, they embark on a significant journey to rural Maine to record vanishing American folk songs onto fragile wax cylinders. This brief trip serves as an attempt to archive their temporary, yet life-defining, love, the memory of which haunts Lionel for decades.

• Lionel, a quiet Kentucky farm boy, meets David, a charismatic composer, at the Boston Music Conservatory in 1917. Their instant connection blossoms into a secret, intimate relationship.

• The relationship is interrupted by World War I when David is drafted and returns home suffering from undiscussed "shell shock" (PTSD).

• In 1920, David commissions a trip to rural Maine to record vanishing American folk songs onto fragile wax cylinders. This trip is a beautiful, shared existence where their relationship deepens, attempting to archive their temporary love.

• The pair separate, and Lionel spends years drifting, constantly pulled back to the profound memory of David.

• An older Lionel (Chris Cooper) finally tracks down David’s past, recovering a lost box of the original wax cylinders—a physical, auditory archive of the sound of their time together.

Director's Vision: The Fragility of Sound and Memory

Director Oliver Hermanus's vision was to create a cinematic time capsule, reflecting on the historical process of recording sound as an echo of fleeting love. He aimed for a visually grand, deliberately paced film, acting as a "love letter to the films of the '90s." Crucially, his approach tells a gay love story where the characters' sexuality is accepted, and the narrative focuses instead on universal themes of trauma and unspoken emotion.

• "Love Letter to the Films of the '90s": Hermanus explicitly aimed for a film with a deliberate, painterly pace and visual aesthetic reminiscent of the grand, character-focused arthouse dramas of the 1990s.

• Sound as an Emotional Element: His vision used the absence of sound in certain moments—especially in the aftermath of loss—to create profound power and reflect the characters' inability to vocalize their deepest feelings and regrets.

• Queerness Without Conflict: The director sought to tell a gay love story where queerness was not the core issue or problem. Instead, the film focuses on universal themes of first love's lasting resonance and memory.

Themes: Love, Loss, and Cultural Preservation

The primary themes explored are the enduring nature of first love and its capacity to define an entire life, contrasting against the loss of both personal connection and oral history. The film uses the archival process of recording folk songs as a powerful metaphor for the attempt to preserve fragile, fleeting moments in time. Finally, it explores the deep emotional toll of trauma and repression that accumulates when feelings are left unspoken due to societal constraints.

• First Love as Life's Defining Event: The film posits that a brief, intense first love can become the resonance of a person's entire life, with subsequent success and relationships being measured against that profound, foundational connection.

• The Archive of Memory: The folk-song collecting on wax cylinders is a potent metaphor for the attempt to archive a fleeting moment in time, emphasizing the fragility of both oral history and personal memory.

• Trauma, Repression, and the Unsaid: The film explores the weight of unsaid feelings and the devastating impact of untreated trauma, exemplified by David's shell shock, which leads to his withdrawal and ultimate tragedy.

Key success factors: Artistic Craftsmanship and A-List Performances

The film's success is largely predicated on the magnetic chemistry between its two A-list lead actors, Mescal and O'Connor, who bring immense gravitas to the material. Beyond the star power, the film relies on its high artistic quality, specifically its luminous, painterly cinematography and meticulously realized period setting. Director Hermanus’s disciplined, deliberately languorous pacing is a critical choice that allows the emotional weight of Lionel’s decades-long longing to build effectively.

• Star-Powered Lead Duo: The casting of Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor guaranteed immense pre-release interest, translating art-house material into a high-profile cinematic event.

• Luminous Cinematography and Production Design: The film’s gorgeous, painterly framings of the rural American landscape, coupled with meticulous period detail, create a beautiful, immersive world.

• Emotional Slow-Burn: Director Hermanus’s disciplined, deliberately languorous pacing is a critical choice that allows the audience to feel the full, cumulative weight of Lionel’s longing over decades.

Awards and Nominations: Cannes Recognition

The most significant achievement for the film so far is its selection for the official competition at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. This highly coveted placement instantly positioned the movie as an international arthouse heavyweight. The film was competing for the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, and its director, Oliver Hermanus, was also nominated for the Queer Palm at the 2025 festival.

The film was officially selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Director Oliver Hermanus was also nominated for the Queer Palm at the festival.

Critics reception: Beautiful, Yet Deliberate

The film was met with significant, yet mixed, critical reception at its festival premiere. Critics universally praised its visual beauty and the powerful, restrained performances from the two leads. However, many were divided on the film's extremely slow and mournful pacing, with some reviewers finding the restraint exquisite while others described it as listless.

• Variety: Described the film as "a drama that mostly just sits there," calling it "listless and spiritually inexpressive" and labeling it "Brokeback Mountain on sedatives," though acknowledging its visual competence.

• Screen Daily: Praised the film’s "aching reticence" and its "period-appropriate vein of quietude, that is beautifully captured in DoP Alexander Dynan's sombre, painterly framings."

• Deadline: Praised the film's visual sumptuousness and deliberate pacing, stating that if given a chance, "it will wrap you up and take you places movies don't often go these days," likening its visual style and pace to Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven.

Reviews: A Quiet, Profound Emotional Accumulation

Audience and specialized press reviews often highlighted the emotional potency hidden within the film's quiet, intimate moments. Many noted that the film’s challenging slow pace was ultimately rewarded by a powerful, devastating emotional conclusion. Reviewers celebrated the comfortable and palpable chemistry between Mescal and O'Connor, which grounded the story's themes of companionship and loss.

• The Rolling Tape: Noted that the film "unfolds slowly, much like life itself... The emotional payoff lies instead in recognizing that the fragments we have witnessed—the small gestures, the quiet songs, the pauses—were the story all along."

• Out Magazine: Celebrated the focus on "how simple melodies and familiar lyrics can be the most powerful type of music... and how a brief and quiet love affair between two young men can be the most powerful kind of story," praising the comfort and chemistry between Mescal and O'Connor.

• Audience Commentary: Many felt the film was "a fairly soft spoken film," but that the execution was "perfect," with the slow pace leading to a powerful crescendo of regret and longing for the older Lionel.

What Movie Trend film is following: The Trend of Sound as Storytelling

The film is following the cinematic trend of utilizing sound design not merely as a background element but as a central, narrative device. This involves highlighting the literal, historical recording of sound to underline the ephemeral nature of human connection and memory. This emphasis elevates sound from a technical element to a core narrative character and metaphor.

The film is following the cinematic trend of utilizing sound design not merely as a background element but as a central, narrative device, specifically highlighting the literal, historical recording of sound to underline the ephemeral nature of human connection and memory.

What Big Social Trend is following : The Resurgence of The Unspoke

The film is aligned with the social trend of seeking out quiet, complex human stories that prioritize the interior emotional life of characters. This trend caters to an audience increasingly fatigued by loud, spectacle-driven media and who are instead craving authentic, deeply felt human connection and nuance. The focus is on emotional reality rather than plot momentum.

The film is following the big social trend of the resurgence of quiet, complex human stories that prioritize interior emotional life and micro-aggressions over broad spectacle, appealing to an audience fatigued by loud, fast-paced media and craving authentic, deeply felt human connection.

Final Verdict: A Melancholic Masterpiece of Memory and Sound

The History of Sound is a beautiful, melancholic portrait of a life defined by a brief, unspoken first love. While its deliberate pace demands patience, it rewards the viewer with exquisite acting, lush cinematography, and a profound meditation on the power of memory and the enduring echo of the unsaid, cementing it as an essential piece of elevated modern arthouse cinema.

Key Trend highlighted – Sound as Narrative Archive: The film uses the historical fragility of wax cylinder folk recordings as a powerful metaphor for the precious, yet precarious, memory of a hidden love.

Key Insight- Love's Loudest Silence: The love not explicitly discussed or fully lived often becomes the loudest, most defining sound in a person's life, resonating throughout all subsequent experiences.

Similar movies: The Languid Ache of Lost Love

These movies share a similar emotional core, focusing on period settings, highly suppressed or star-crossed affection, and the enduring weight of a life-altering love or memory. They all prioritize a slow-burn, atmospheric approach to their central relationship. They serve as excellent comparisons for the film's genre and emotional tenor.

• All of Us Strangers (2023): Shares Paul Mescal's nuanced portrayal of a character grappling with profound loss, grief, and the haunting presence of past relationships.

• Brokeback Mountain (2005): A seminal period piece about a passionate but ultimately star-crossed gay romance set in a repressive American rural landscape, sharing themes of longing and the weight of the unsaid.

• Past Lives (2023): Explores the theme of a deeply meaningful connection from the past that resurfaces, forcing the protagonist to re-evaluate her present life and the weight of roads not taken