# @ggxnews on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DOxEhBjkWdq
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34718239-ggxnews-instagram
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- **Posted:** 2025-09-19T02:16:28.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Golden Gate Xpress (@GGXnews) — https://gondola.cc/GGXnews

## Caption

Fidelity is a fickle thing. The act of adaptation heavily relies upon an artist bringing unique perspectives to preexisting work, whatever it may be. In “The History of Sound,” Oliver Hermanus has handsomely directed Ben Shattuck’s script, one based on Shattuck’s own short story. Aye, there’s the rub.

Rigidity is the modus operandi for this gay love story set before, during and in the aftermath of World War I. Rigid is the public expression of love between these two men, rigidity is what one was raised on and what the other eschews yet falls into. Though it may feel apt for a formal rigidity to dominate the film’s craft, this endless standstill quickly proves tiresome. 

The saga follows Lionel Worthing, played by Paul Mescal, a musical prodigy whose preternatural sense for sound, known even as a child in 1910 Kentucky, sets him on a path to Boston Conservatory where he befriends fellow David White, played by Josh O’Connor, with whom he falls into a whirlwind romance. The war tears the two apart as White goes off to the trenches, but they reunite years later and venture on a song-recording mission through rural Maine while contending with how to love each other and still live in the repressed 1920s.

While this is rich as a premise, Hermanus and Shattuck’s adaptation gets stuck scratching at the tip of the iceberg. There are clearly inner worlds within Lionel and David, made so clear by Mescal and O’Connor’s sweet and earnest performances, but their passions are rendered so chaste in the edit until their fires fizzle faster than an audience can keep up with.

🔗 Read the full story at link in bio.

✍️: August Hammel (augusttheeighth)
📸: Gwen Capistran

#sfsu #sfstate #thehistoryofsound #paulmescal #joshoconnor

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## Tags

paulmescal, joshoconnor, thehistoryofsound, sfstate, sfsu

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