The History of Sound has been a long time coming. News of the project, a sweeping romance that plays out in the shadow of World War I, first reached us back in 2020; it would be penned by Ben Shattuck, from his ravishing short story of the same name. The acclaimed Oliver Hermanus (Beauty, Moffie, and Living, which earned Bill Nighy an Oscar nod) would be its director, and it’d star beloved heartthrobs Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor. After several delays, it has now finally premiered, and at the glitziest of all cinematic showcases: the Cannes Film Festival. It’s almost enough for awards campaigners to start devising their 2026 strategies already, right?

To an extent, yes—although, despite this quartet’s immense talent, this contemplative period piece is, sadly, just not the sum of its parts.

Its setting is a tumbledown farm in Kentucky in 1910, the home of the soft-spoken, musically minded Lionel Worthing (Mescal), who has grown up obsessed with regional folk music. It’s a passion which takes him to Boston in 1917, to study at the New England Conservatory, which is where, at a smoky bar, he overhears a voice crooning a familiar tune from home. The singer is David White (O’Connor), an orphan from Newport and fellow student equally fascinated with the lost songs of cloistered communities. These kindred spirits find solace in each other, and a shy and gentle romance slowly blossoms.

Heartbreak comes shortly afterwards in the form of war, with David deployed to the front and Lionel left behind, on account of his poor eyesight. The latter asks the former to write to him, but he doesn’t—not until a few years later, when David writes from Maine, where he now has a teaching position. He’s been asked, he says, to go on a song-collecting trip through the state to gather an oral history of folk music, which is otherwise at risk of being forgotten entirely. Would Lionel like to join him? He, of course, leaps at the opportunity.

The pair set off through the woods, sleeping in a tent at night, wrapped in each other’s arms, and spending their days capturing tunes on delicate cylinders and creating a formal record of the people, places, times, and traditions they come from. After they part, Lionel writes to David every month, but never hears back. Years later, music takes Lionel to Rome, where he sings in a prestigious choir, and then to Oxford, where he conducts, but David remains on his mind. When he finally makes it back to Maine in an attempt to find him, The History of Sound reaches its emotional crescendo.