NEED TO KNOW
- Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor portray two young men named Lionel and David, who form a close bond when they overlap as students a music conservatory in the 1910s in The History of Sound
- The movie, which is directed by Oliver Hermanus, also stars Chris Cooper
- The History of Sound is in theaters Sept. 12
Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor are getting close in their new romantic drama.
On Thursday, July 24, Mubi released the first trailer for its upcoming movie The History of Sound, which stars Mescal, 29, and O’Connor, 35, as two young men named Lionel Werthing and David White, who meet while studying music in Boston in the 1910s.
The trailer shows O’Connor and Mescal taking turns singing at school — and O’Connor’s David traveling to Europe to serve in World War I — as both men reckon with the romantic relationship that blossoms after they bond over music. The film then follows the arc of their lives that comes in the years after first meeting. Chris Cooper, 74, portrays an older version of Mescal’s Lionel; he can be heard reflecting on his past in a voiceover in the trailer.
“Two young music students, Lionel and David, attending the Boston Conservatory in 1917, bond over their shared love of folk music,” an official synopsis for the movie reads. “They reconnect a few years later, embarking on a song collecting trip in the backwaters of Maine.”
The History of Sound made its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in May. An official synopsis provided on Cannes’ website indicates that the movie follows Lionel and David through several years of their lives, including after David is drafted into the military as World War I comes to a close.
“In 1920, the two spend a winter walking through the forests and islands of Maine, collecting folk songs in order to preserve them for future generations,” the synopsis adds. “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.”
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Back in May, Mescal told reporters during the movie’s press conference in Cannes that the on-set atmosphere between him and O’Connor felt “very light and boyish and nonsensical at times.”
“We’ve known each other for about five years and we were definitely friendly so that foundation of safety and play was there, but that relationship really deepened in the three or four weeks we were filming,” Mescal said at that time, describing O’Connor as “one of the easiest persons” to build chemistry with on set.
The History of Sound is in theaters Sept. 12.
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