The Cannes Film Festival competition this evening tuned into The History of Sound, director Oliver Hermanus’ first time in the main theater. It was met with a nine-minute ovation that only slowed as they had to load in the next film premiere.

The long-in-the-works period movie stars Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor in a story of love and music that spans decades.

In his remarks to the crowd following the screening, Hermanus praised “the genius that is Paul Mescal.”

Mescal plays Lionel, a talented singer from rural Kentucky raised on the songs his father sang. In 1917, he leaves his family farm to attend the Boston Music Conservatory and meets David (O’Connor), a charming composing student who is soon drafted into the end of WWI. In 1920, the two spend a winter walking through the forests and islands of Maine. Lionel drifts through Europe in his twenties and thirties, building a new life of profound success and happiness, and experiencing new loves. Yet he is constantly drawn back to memories of his brief time with David, trying to understand the impact of their relationship. Eventually, a reminder of their work together reveals why their connection rang loud.

O’Connor has two movies here in Cannes this year, with Kelly Reichardt’s art heist picture The Mastermind due to debut later this week. He previously told Deadline that The History of Sound “plays into that feeling of nostalgia and regret and loss… What’s so beautiful about it is this feeling of song and of music. When you listen to a piece of music and it transports you to a certain place or a time, and if you close your eyes, you can feel like you are actually there.”

O’Conner did not attend tonight’s premiere due to work commitments, but Hermanus praised him nonetheless in his post-screening remarks.