Paul Mescal came to seduce Cannes, and it appears to be working.
The red-hot young star of The History of Sound received a warm welcome from the festival audience for the world premiere of Oliver Hermanus‘ new film, in competition, in Cannes on Wednesday night.
Hermanus and Mescal walked the red-carpet while co-star Josh O’Conner didn’t make it to the Croisette for the History of Sound debut but is expected Friday for the premiere of Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, in which he also stars.
Also walking the History of Sound carpet were castmembers Raphael Sbarge, Molly Price, Hadley Robinson, Emma Canning and Peter Mark Kendall as well as Fast & Furious star Michelle Rodriguez; John C. Reilly and Italian actor Alessandro Borghi, here with the neo-Western Heads or Tails? playing in Un Certain Regard; and Julian Assange, in town for the premiere of The 6 Billion Dollar Man, director Eugene Jarecki’s documentary on the WikiLeaks founder.
The historical romantic drama follows David (O’Connor) and Lionel (Mescal), two young men who meet in 1917 at the Boston Music Conservatory and later travel through rural Maine recording American folk songs in the aftermath of World War I.
The History of Sound is based on the short story of the same name by Ben Shattuck, who adapted his tale for the screen. Hermanus is known for his 2011 feature Beauty, which won the Queer Palm in Cannes; the BAFTA-nomineed South African LGBTQ drama drama Moffie (2019); and the 2022 feature Living starring Bill Nighy.
Mubi will release The History of Sound in North America, with Universal Pictures International handling international territories.
The film was greeted with warm, enthusiastic applause as Mescal and the director embraced. Taking the mic, Hermanus thanked his “brother-in-arms that could not be here, Josh O’Connor,” who is currently shooting a film, but “we miss him, we love him.” The director said the project had been “one of the great creative collaborations of my very short career” and thanked his star for making it happen.
“We would have never got this movie done (without him),” he said. “This is a testament to the genius of Paul Mescal.”