When Oliver Hermanus premiered The History of Sound at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, the film arrived with the quiet force of something both intimate and monumental.
Adapted by Ben Shattuck from his own short stories—“The History of Sound” and “Origin Stories”—the film extends a lineage of queer historical narratives while carving out its own distinct emotional terrain. It is a work of tenderness and ache, a meditation on the fragility of connection, and a portrait of two young men who try to preserve the world’s music even as they struggle to preserve each other.
At its core, The History of Sound is a story about listening—listening to the land, to strangers, to the past, and to the tremors of one’s own heart. Hermanus, whose earlier films Moffie and Living explored repression, longing, and the quiet violence of social expectation, brings a similar sensitivity here. But this time, the canvas is broader, the romance more central, and the emotional stakes more exposed.
The History of Sound is not simply a period romance. It is a study of how people imprint on one another, how art becomes a vessel for longing, and how the past continues to echo long after the wax has cracked. Hermanus and Shattuck have crafted a film that feels both timeless and urgently present—a work that asks us to listen closely, because nothing lasts forever.
The Story: Two Men, One Winter, and a Country’s Vanishing Songs
Set between 1917 and the mid‑1920s, the film follows Lionel Worthing (Paul Mescal) and David White (Josh O’Connor), two students at the New England Conservatory of Music who meet in Boston just as the United States enters World War I. Their connection is immediate—rooted in music, curiosity, and a shared hunger for something beyond the polite boundaries of their world.
When David is drafted, the war interrupts their fragile beginning. Lionel, whose eyesight exempts him from service, returns to Kentucky after the conservatory closes. The film’s early passages are marked by this separation: two young men suspended between desire and duty, each reshaped by forces larger than themselves.
Their reunion in 1919 sets the narrative in motion. David, now working at a college in Maine, invites Lionel to join him on a winter expedition to record folk songs on wax cylinders—an effort to capture the voices of rural Americans before they vanish into the churn of modernity. The journey becomes a crucible: a test of their bond, a confrontation with their differences, and a brief, luminous chapter in a relationship destined to fracture.
The film’s structure—framed by an older Lionel (played by Chris Cooper) reflecting on his life—adds a layer of elegy. Memory becomes both refuge and wound, a place where love survives even when the lovers do not.
The Creative Forces Behind the Film
Ben Shattuck: The Writer Who Heard the Past Whisper
Shattuck’s original short story “The History of Sound” was already a quiet marvel—an exploration of intimacy, loss, and the ephemeral nature of recorded sound. His decision to adapt his own work for the screen ensures that the film retains the story’s emotional DNA. The screenplay expands the narrative’s scope while preserving its delicate attention to sensory detail: the crackle of wax cylinders, the hush of snow‑covered forests, the tremor of a voice captured in a moment of vulnerability.
Shattuck’s writing is rooted in the idea that sound is a form of memory—fragile, fleeting, and profoundly human. That belief becomes the film’s heartbeat.
Oliver Hermanus: A Director Drawn to Quiet Catastrophes
Hermanus, a South African filmmaker known for his precise, emotionally charged direction, brings a restrained yet deeply felt sensibility to the material. Critics have noted how The History of Sound echoes elements of his earlier work—particularly the queer longing of Moffie and the reflective melancholy of Living.
But this film marks a shift. Hermanus leans into romance, into the sensuality of music, into the ache of what might have been. His direction is patient, allowing silence to speak and glances to carry the weight of entire histories.
What Inspired the Film
The film’s inspiration lies in Shattuck’s fascination with early ethnographic recording expeditions—those strange, beautiful undertakings where scholars and musicians traveled into rural communities to capture songs before they disappeared. These expeditions were acts of preservation, but also acts of intrusion, collaboration, and cultural exchange.
Shattuck imagined what such a journey might mean for two young men in 1920—men whose desires could not be spoken aloud, whose futures were shaped by war, and whose understanding of themselves was still forming. The wax cylinders become metaphors: fragile vessels holding voices that might otherwise be lost.
Hermanus, in turn, was drawn to the emotional undercurrents of the story—the tension between intimacy and impermanence, between what is recorded and what slips away. His visual style amplifies this inspiration: landscapes that feel both vast and claustrophobic, interiors lit like half‑remembered dreams, and a camera that lingers on faces as if trying to memorize them.
The Film’s Significance
A Queer Historical Romance Told with Grace and Gravity
In a cinematic landscape where queer stories often lean toward tragedy or triumph, The History of Sound occupies a more nuanced space. It is neither a cautionary tale nor a triumphant manifesto. Instead, it is a portrait of love shaped by circumstance—tender, flawed, and deeply human.
The film’s significance lies in its refusal to sensationalise. It treats queer desire as something ordinary and sacred, woven into the fabric of history rather than existing outside it.
A Meditation on Preservation and Loss
The act of recording folk songs becomes a metaphor for the film’s larger concerns: What do we choose to preserve? What do we allow to fade? How do we hold onto the people who shape us?
The wax cylinders—objects that can shatter with a single drop—mirror the fragility of Lionel and David’s relationship. Their journey is an attempt to capture something ephemeral, knowing all the while that time will erode even the most carefully preserved memories.
A Showcase for Two of the Most Compelling Actors of Their Generation
Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor bring a rare emotional precision to their roles. Critics have praised their chemistry, their restraint, and the way they inhabit the film’s long silences. Their performances anchor the story, giving it both heat and heartbreak.
A Continuation of Hermanus’s Exploration of Masculinity and Vulnerability
Hermanus has long been interested in the ways men navigate desire, fear, and societal expectation. The History of Sound extends this exploration into new territory—one shaped by music, memory, and the shifting cultural landscape of early 20th‑century America.
A Film That Listens to the Past
In an era obsessed with spectacle, The History of Sound is a reminder of cinema’s quieter powers. It listens. It observes. It invites the audience into a world where sound becomes a form of intimacy, and where the smallest moments carry the greatest emotional weight.
Interview: Writer Ben Shattuck and director Oliver Hermanus on archiving romance with The History of Sound
Oliver Hermanus
South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus has emerged as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary cinema, known for his visually precise, emotionally charged explorations of identity, repression, and the quiet ruptures that shape human lives. Born in Cape Town in 1983 and raised in Plettenberg Bay during the final years of apartheid, Hermanus grew up in a politically engaged family whose activism and lived experience of segregation subtly inform the moral undercurrents of his work. After studying film, media, and visual studies at the University of Cape Town, he received a private scholarship from director Roland Emmerich to attend the London Film School, where he completed his master’s degree and began shaping the aesthetic discipline that defines his films. His debut, Shirley Adams (2009), announced a filmmaker of rare sensitivity, while Beauty (2011) won the Queer Palm at Cannes and established him internationally as a bold chronicler of queer interiority. Subsequent films—including The Endless River (2015), Moffie (2019), and the BAFTA‑nominated Living (2022)—deepened his reputation for crafting intimate, psychologically layered narratives. With The History of Sound (2025), Hermanus extends his reach into American period romance, bringing his signature blend of restraint, sensuality, and emotional precision to a story of love, memory, and the fragile echoes that shape a life.
Ben Shattuck
American writer, painter, and curator Ben Shattuck has built a career at the intersection of art, history, and storytelling, crafting work that blends meticulous research with a deep emotional intelligence. Born in Massachusetts in 1984 to a family immersed in the arts—his mother a gallery owner, his father a painter—Shattuck grew up surrounded by creative practice and the rhythms of New England’s coastal landscapes. After studying at Deerfield Academy and earning his BA from Cornell University, he completed an MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he later taught fiction writing. His essays and stories began appearing in major literary magazines, with his breakout short story “The History of Sound” winning a Pushcart Prize and later inspiring both his acclaimed 2024 story collection and the screenplay for the 2025 film adaptation. Shattuck’s nonfiction debut, Six Walks, retraced the footsteps of Henry David Thoreau and earned widespread critical praise for its blend of memoir, natural history, and philosophical reflection. His fiction, meanwhile, has been celebrated for its lyrical precision, historical depth, and the way his narratives echo across centuries. Shattuck lives on the Massachusetts coast with his wife, actor and writer Jenny Slate, and their daughter, continuing to write from a studio filled with artifacts, natural curiosities, and the quiet rituals that shape his creative life.
The History of Sound is currently available through a mix of streaming platforms, digital rental services, and limited theatrical screenings, giving viewers several ways to experience Oliver Hermanus’s acclaimed historical romance. According to the latest verified listings, the film can be streamed on MUBI or through the MUBI Amazon Channel, making it accessible to subscribers who prefer curated, art‑house platforms. For those who want to rent or purchase it digitally, the film is offered on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango At Home.
