The History of Sound

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★

Rated: M

Directed by: Oliver Hermanus

Written by: Ben Shattuck

Based on the Short Story by: Ben Shattuck

Screenplay Written by: Ben Shattuck

Produced by: Sara Murphy, Andrew Kortschak, Lisa Ciuffetti, Thérèsa Ryan-Van Graan, Oliver Hermanus, Zhang Xin

Starring: Paul Mescal, Josh O’Connor, Chris Cooper, Leo Cocovinis, Raphael Sbarge, Molly Price, Samuel Levine, Tom Nelis, Cate Finck.

‘Write, send chocolate.  Don’t die.’

Beginning in 1910, The History of Sound is an epic love story that spans in linear time, from Lionel (Pual Mescal) as a farm boy in Kentucky, listening to his father (Raphael Sbarge) play guitar and sing, to Lionel’s description of music as colour, as a taste in his mouth, B minor a bitterness that would fill his mouth, how he could name the note his mother (Molly Price) coughs every morning, or the key of calling spring time frogs.  ‘It never occurred music was only sound.’

Lionel earns a scholarship to Boston Conservatory for singing where he meets, David (Josh O’Connor).  David has a photographic memory and stores songs so he’s able to play anything he’s heard just once.

Hearing David sing in a bar reminds Lionel of home.

The film is about the love Lionel and David find in each other, brought together by their love of music.

It’s a quiet film, except for the touches of orchestral background, so the highlight is the folk songs of Lionel’s past and David’s collection of singing, the old ballads and folk songs sung solo or in harmony pure and warm to hear.

David invites Lionel to travel through Maine, camping, loving, recording folk songs on wax cylinders, an invention by Thomas Edison, an invention the country people of New England have never encountered before.  Each song recorded has its own story, the voices recorded for the stories to be shared, to be remembered.

It’s a film of simple pleasures, of family eating together, playing together, working, laughing; a father showing his son the trick of setting a tea bag aflame to burn out to then fly up into the air like magic.

There’s beauty in the quiet, of dancing a whirly gig through the sparks of a fire showering the night with grief.

‘Write, send chocolate.  And don’t die.’

This is a love that survives the first Great War.

The film follows Lionel as he grows from a young man maturing to an old man (Chris Cooper) reflecting on his life, the thread always David.

Like the waters of the river in the opening scene, The History of Sound is a reflection of Lionel’s life.

Driving home after the film, I didn’t want any sound, I turned the radio off because I wanted to be still with the music of David singing Silver Dagger.

It’s a stirring film that takes its time to unpack the effect of love at a young age, the happiness of living during a time of doing what you love with the person who understands and loves you back.

There’s an honesty of the emptiness left when that time is gone.  The searching, the wanting it back.

The inability to love when your heart has already been taken.

It’s a soundtrack of Lionel’s life.

You’ve got to be in the mood for this one, but if you can quiet yourself, the music draws you in to be folded into the story.