badelf
9.0/10Nov 07, 2025
The History of Sound: The Casablanca of the 21st Century "The History of Sound" is an incredibly powerful love story, I'm calling it the "Casablanca" of the 21st century. That's not hyperbole. Like Bogart's immortal line: "If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life." Oliver Hermanus's film understands the weight of choices made and paths not taken. Both these love films stay with you long after the credits roll, their emotional resonance deepening with time. Kudos to Ben Shattuck for writing an incredible screenplay, particularly impressive for a beginner adapting his own short story. He's crafted something rare: a narrative that honors both romantic love and the love of music without sacrificing either. Hermanus brings this vision to life with luscious, warm, period filmmaking that feels both intimate and expansive. And he succeeds in making the queer love story so natural that the film doesn't feel like it's making that kind of statement at all. The soundtrack is a treasure chest of Americana, those wax cylinder recordings capturing not just songs but souls, voices that might have been lost to history if not for the devotion of men like Lionel and David. The film understands that preservation is an act of love, whether it's folk songs disappearing into modernity or moments between two people that the world may never acknowledge. "The History of Sound" is cinema that lingers, that reverberates, that refuses to fade.
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