Oliver Hermanus Talks About the Journey of ‘The History of Sound’ and Working with Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor [VIDEO INTERVIEW]
The history of The History of Sound began five years ago, at the beginning of COVID lockdowns in March 2020.
Right at that point, Mescal burst onto the scene with the limited series Normal People, his first lead role as an actor, and it earned him an Emmy nomination. O’Connor was starring as Prince Charles in The Crown, which earned him an Emmy win in 2021. In 2022, Mescal cemented his place as the up and coming actor with the indie Aftersun, nabbing a Best Actor Oscar nomination. That led him to 2023’s All of Us Strangers and catapulted him to blockbuster leading man stardom with 2024’s Gladiator II. During this entire time, The History of Sound was still gestating and percolating and fighting for its life through financing, pandemics and strikes that found Hermanus making two full projects instead; the steamy Starz limited series Mary & George with Julianne Moore and Nicholas Galatzine and the feature film Living, which earned its star Bill Nighy an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. But the trio never let go of this project and as the actors’ careers continued to rise (O’Connor is in no less than four features this year), they kept coming back to The History of Sound like a siren call.
Hermanus, a South African born writer and filmmaker, primarily made films in his native country,s with first feature, Shirley Adams premiering in Competition at the Locarno Film Festival in 2009. His second, Skoonheid premiered in the Un Certain Regard Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011, winning the Queer Palm. His next feature, The Endless River became the first South African film to ever be invited to Competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2015. In 2019 he made Noffie, premiering in the Orizzonti selection at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and his breakthrough as director. In 2021, Living premiered at the Sundance Film Festival before going on to screen at the Venice, Telluride, Toronto and London Film Festivals and earning two Academy Award nominations.
In The History of Sound, based on the short story by Ben Shattuck, it’s 1917 and Lionel (Mescal)—a young, talented music student—meets David (O’Connor) at the Boston Conservatory, where they bond over a deep love of folk music. Years later, Lionel receives a letter from David, leading to an impromptu journey through the backwoods of Maine to collect traditional songs. This unexpected reunion, ensuing love affair, and the music they collect and preserve, will shape the course of Lionel’s life far beyond his own awareness.
At one point, Hermanus see the Brokeback Mountain poster behind me, which brings up a comparison a journalist made during the Cannes press conference of the film, one that Mescal pushed back on. Understandably so, despite some similarities, comparisons can sometimes be reductive and Hermanus talks about how The History of Sound‘s intimacy and situation is it own world, being told from a perspective of memory, Hermanus says it’s “a romantic and somewhat melancholic idea.”
MUBI will release The History of Sound in select theaters on September 12 and wide on September 19.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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