The History of Sound (2025)
12-month trend
12-month trend
Monthly article views
2025-09 to 2026-08
The story
In 1917, music students Lionel Worthing and David White meet at a pub and bond over their shared love of folk music. Their connection deepens as they navigate the onset of World War I, which leads to David's conscription and Lionel's return to his family's farm in Kentucky. In 1919, the two reunite and embark on a journey across rural Maine to collect folk songs on wax cylinders. As they travel together, they rekindle their relationship and capture the voices of people from various walks of life, even as the looming reality of their separate futures begins to take shape.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1917, Lionel Worthing and David White meet at a pub and bond over folk music. When World War I begins, David is drafted and Lionel returns to his family farm in Kentucky. In 1919, they reunite for a trip across Maine to record folk songs on wax cylinders. They eventually part ways, and Lionel stops receiving letters from David. In 1923, Lionel moves to Rome and later to Oxford, where he meets Clarissa Roux. After a brief relationship with her, he returns to the U.S. for his mother's illness and finds his home abandoned. He travels to Maine to find David, only to learn David died of shell shock from the war and the wax cylinders were never officially commissioned. He meets David's widow, Belle, who tells him about David's death. In 1980, as an ethnomusicologist, Lionel receives a package containing the wax cylinders, including one recorded on the day of David's death, where David leaves a final message and sings a song they once shared.
- First release year
- 2025
- Runtime (minutes)
- 128
- Production countries
- United States; United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Oliver Hermanus
- Writers
- Ben Shattuck · writer
- Cast and characters
- Paul Mescal · Lionel Worthing; Chris Cooper · Older Lionel; Josh O'Connor · David White; Molly Price · Lionel's mother; Raphael Sbarge · Lionel Worthing Sr.; Hadley Robinson · Belle Sinclair; Emma Canning · Clarissa Roux; Emily Bergl · Mrs. Roux
- Genres
- romance; drama
- Themes
- intimacy; remembrance; cultural preservation
- Tone and mood
- melodic; atmospherically powerful
- Premise and plot tags
- period piece; romance; historical fiction; musical
- Source material / true-story basis
- Short stories 'The History of Sound' and 'Origin Stories' by Ben Shattuck
- Reception
- The film received generally favorable reviews, with critics praising its atmosphere, acting, and ability to evoke emotion.
- Production trivia
- Josh O'Connor learned to play the piano for his role.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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