Paul Mescal falls in love with Josh O’Connor in The History of Sound: trailer

Worn by a sublime duo, the first images of Oliver Hermanus’ film deliver a poetic story that combines sweetness and melancholy.

Under the sun of the Croisette, a little over two months ago, The History of Sound was revealed to festival -goers. Newcomer to Cannes competition, the director Oliver Hermanus unveiled his sixth feature film, adapted from a short story by Ben Shattuck.

The duo of actors in vogue, composed of Paul MESCAL And Josh O’Connorembody two music students – a singer and a composer – whose paths intersect at the beginning of the 20th century around the piano of a Boston bar. Very quickly, they decide to travel together the forests of the eastern country to record folk songs interpreted by the inhabitants of local villages. The time of a brief summer, the two men will know a love passion before being quickly separated by the mobilization of the First World War and the years that parade.

Cannes 2025: The History of Sound touches a sensitive rope (critic)

After Moffie And Live – Remake of the Kurosawa classic -, The History of Sound materializes by a visual and sound fresco of great beauty. With a lot of delicacy, the South African filmmaker is combing a love story, shared between passion and regrets, with in the background, music, which helps create strong emotions. A poetic but distanced account with great subtlety that we discover from the first images: sublime landscapes, songs of incredible delicacy and a relationship that is both gentle and tortuous.

If the first part of the trailer reports on this delicacy, quickly, the rhythm accelerates to make way for more arid sequences stirring the painful memories of this past idyll.

Historical and romantic drama, The History of Sound features the meeting between the star of Gladiator IIPaul Mescal, and Josh O’Connor, Prince Charles in The Crown. For his part the actor of Normal people continues on his way to music with his ambitious project to play Paul McCartney in the four films on the Beatles of Sam Mendes.

While an outing is scheduled for September 12 in the United States, on their sides, we will have to wait January 14, 2026 to discover The History of Sound in the dark rooms of France. Trailer: