The History of Sound
Film
DFS: Music and the Movies

The History of Sound

February 14, 2026

Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor play early 20th-century music students in this heartfelt, understated romance that spans decades and continents.

THE HISTORY OF SOUND | Official Trailer | Now Streaming Exclusively on MUBI

 

While growing up in rural Kentucky at the turn of the 19th century, Lionel (Mescal) demonstrates a profound gift for music that leads him to a scholarship at the Boston Conservatory of Music. There, he meets the upper-class, polished David (O'Connor) through their shared passion for folk ballads. World War I separates them, but they reunite for an idyllic musicological field trip through rural New England, listening to and recording local people singing their homemade compositions.

Director Oliver Hermanus (Living) creates an intoxicating, nostalgic period atmosphere, with folk songs, augmented subtly by Oliver Coates's score. Mescal and O'Connor are two of the best actors alive right now, and they make this beguiling, hearttugging romance as believable as it is beautiful. 

D: Oliver Hermanus, US, 2025, 2h7m

Programmed as part of the Dartmouth Film Society series "Music and the Movies"

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