At the heart of History of Sound is wonderful gay romance between two men during the early 1900s.
But don’t make any comparisons to Brokeback Mountain, please per the movie’s star Paul Mescal and South African director Oliver Hermanus.
Mescal plays Lionel, a talented singer from rural Kentucky raised on the songs his father sang. In 1917, he leaves his family farm to attend the Boston Music Conservatory and meets David (O’Connor), a charming composing student, who bond over their love of folk music. David is soon drafted into the end of WWI. In 1920, the two spend a winter walking through the forests and islands of Maine. Lionel drifts through Europe in his twenties and thirties, building a new life of profound success and happiness, and experiencing new loves. Yet he is constantly drawn back to memories of his brief time with David, trying to understand the impact of their relationship. Eventually, a reminder of their work together reveals why their connection rang loud.
Said Mescal, “I personally don’t see the parallel at all between Brokeback Mountain, despite the fact that we spent a little bit of time in a tent.”
“When I look at Brokeback Mountain, it’s dealing with repression, this film is pointed in the opposite direction,” he added, “To be honest, I find those comparisons lazy and frustrating.”
Added Hermanus, “That movie wasn’t in our heads….it just shows there should be more forms about these nuances of queer relationships, beyond the context what most movies deal with. I felt that the idea of History of Sound, it wasn’t bout the complications of their sexuality that wasn’t the problem between them, rather what was going to keep them apart is that they would have other loves in their life.”
The pic repped Hermanus’ first time here at the Grand Lumiere, but second time in Cannes after 2011’s Beauty which played in Un Certain Regard. The History of Sound received a nine-minute standing ovation at its premiere Wednesday night.
We caught up with Mescal in the scrum after the press conference, asking him what his prep has been like to play Liverpool native Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes’ quad Beatles epic.
Said the actor keeping it short: “I’m working on it.”