Since its Cannes premiere, The History of Sound has been subjected to comparisons with Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, mostly stemmed from their portrayal of queer relationships on the mainstream scale. Paul Mescal, however, isn’t too thrilled about these comparisons, as thematically, the two movies are complete opposites.

Mescal, often revered for championing queer figures on the big screen, elaborated on his issues with these parallels between the two movies, even though he confessed to loving Ang Lee’s period piece.

Given how influential Brokeback Mountain proved to be for queer representation on the mainstream landscape, it’s easy to see why discussions surrounding The History of Sound are harkening to Ange Lee’s period piece.

But per Paul Mescal, past the queer representation with well-known figures that are lovers, the two movies are incomparable. Despite sharing a period setting, the Mescal starrer primarily stemmed from the celebration of these two men’s love in contrast to the societal repression, which was the thematic core of Brokeback Mountain.

During his interview at Cannes, he said: (via Variety):

Brokeback Mountain is a beautiful film, but it’s dealing with the idea of repression, and this film is fundamentally pointed in the opposite direction. To be honest, I find those comparisons relatively lazy and frustrating. The relationship I have with [The History Of Sound] is born out of the fact that it’s a celebration of these two men’s love, not a film about their repressed relationship with their sexuality.

Oliver Hermanus, who marked his first US movie with the queer drama echoed sentiments similar to the Gladiator 2 star. Even though he expected the comparisons with Brokeback Mountain to be inevitable, in their heads, it was always about celebrating the two men’s love.

Having known each other for five years, for Mescal, Josh O’Connor was “one of the easiest people to build chemistry with”, and it’s easy to see why. And it wasn’t until three or four weeks into production that their bond deepened, and the AfterSun star has nothing but adulation for his fellow Indie darling.

He added:

Josh is one of the easiest people to build chemistry with. [Josh] has a great gift of the person that the general public sees is very close to the person we know – that’s a very difficult thing for an actor to do in today’s age.

As of now, no specific theatrical release date has been made public, and as for its distribution, in North America, it’ll be distributed by MUBI and Focus Pictures for the international market.