The History of Sound

Release date: 23 January 2026 (UK)

Director: Oliver Hermanus

Starring: Paul Mescal; Josh O'Connor; Chris Cooper

Producers: Oliver Hermanus, Zhang Xin, Lisa Ciuffetti, Andrew Kortschak, Sara Murphy, Thérèsa Ryan

Distributed by: Mubi, Universal Pictures, Focus Features

Running time: 2h 9m

It’s weird to think about the weeks we spent tramping up the hill to the cinema in blazing sunshine, zigzagging in strange patterns across the road to keep the sun out of the baby’s face. We were showing up for such cheery summer blockbusters as F1 (awful), The Naked Gun (doesn’t really work with the subtitles on) and, bizarrely, Barry Lyndon? Now it’s January, it’s freezing out, the skies are grey and the films are bleak. After the emotional sadism of Hamnet and last week’s dismemberment, we have a certified Artistic Sad Film, featuring more Paul Mescal and a lot of very droopy expressions.

These are not Paul Mescal’s feet

I once played Elizabeth Bennet in an amdram production of Pride and Prejudice (steady now) and one of the hard things was that Elizabeth spends about the last quarter of the play being uncomplicatedly happy. Her sister gets engaged, yay! She gets engaged, yay! She gets to tell Lady Catherine where to stick it, double yay! It’s actually quite hard trying to make a straightforward emotion interesting to watch, and I think the same problem exists here, just the other way around.

Look, we’ve seen a lot of films by now but this is the first to feature two guys travelling about rural America using early twentieth century recording equipment to archive folk songs. That’s…not not interesting. Throw in a love story, the shadow of war (which weirdly we never actually see), a lot of singing (the signing is just ok, but for some reason everyone keeps telling Paul Mescal he’s the best singer in the world?) and some slightly dodgy accents and it’s a good watch. But, my goodness, the sadness, the sadness! As with Hamnet, I’m wondering what exactly I’m supposed to take away? Sentimental Value, a film so interesting (genuinely) I forgot to review it, leaves us with a protagonist tangled up in such a complicated mix of conflicting feelings I was wondering about it for ages afterwards.

Justice for this underwritten woman and her splendid hat

Not so the History of Sound, which wants you to be SAD, guys. We have several doomed romances, parental death, the aforementioned Flamin’ War (see also: The Choral) and just a general, overarching feeling that nothing will ever be ok. Personally, I’d quite like the film about Paul Mescal’s short lived Italian boyfriend who, on being casually told his partner is going to take a job in a different country, calmly and uncomplicatedly walks off. If only the camera had followed him into the beautifully shot streets of Rome! Instead, we have to watch Paul experiencing sad emotional drama after sad emotional drama (what a gruelling year he’s having!), and whilst it’s undeniably well done, I’m just not sure what the message is, other than it’s really tough to both be a gay man in the early twentieth century, and to try to record people singing in their own homes with some wax cylinders and a very low budget.

The great thing about Sentimental Value (ok here it is, my very truncated review!) is that I have my own thoughts about how the protagonist was feeling at the end, and they could easily be entirely different to a thousand other people’s. After trying to protect her own feelings and navigate a really difficult relationship with her father, she ends up agreeing to act in the film which he, somewhat outrageously, asks her to perform in, which is quite clearly based on her dead mother. But there’s something in her expression at the end which made me wonder if she wasn’t slightly relieved to have just given in? This way, she can still have a relationship with him, even though it’s very much on his terms and deeply unsatisfying to her. But better than nothing? Like I say, others may feel very differently, and that’s why I liked it.

All of which is a roundabout way, via Pride and Prejudice and an imaginary film about a hot guy in Rome, of saying that this film is not, in my opinion, half as clever as it wants to be. And that’s ok, but I’ll take a summer blockbuster that knows what it is any day.

Here I am backstage as Elizabeth B (right) with my dear pal Mary, aka Lydia B. No one has ever looked more fabulous wearing a curtain as a coat (her, not me)

Good things: I feel I really nailed the Pemberley ball scene, but I think I’m talking about the wrong thing now

Bad things: It was a quick change and I quite often left the ballroom peacock feathers in my hair for the following ‘at home’ scenes

My review: Ask me in two months and I won’t be able to tell you a single thing that happens in this film

Lily’s review: 0 poos, 0 interest

Next week: Nouvelle Vague. SUBTITLES? FRENCH WITH SUBTITLES? This is a new outrage