"Hedda" and "The History of Sound"

Let's look at two more LGBT romances today that aren't in the awards conversation, but probably should be.

"Hedda" is based on the Henrik Ibsen play "Hedda Gabbler," but altered to the point where it's as much a commentary on the original play as it is a new version of it.  For one thing, the story now takes place in England in the 1950s, and Hedda is played by Tessa Thompson.  This isn't race-blind casting, and Hedda is now a black character, one acutely aware of the difficulties of being a black woman in a world dominated by white men.  Hedda is married to George Tesman (Tom Bateman), a white academic whose fortunes hinge on getting a job that is likely going to go to his rival, Lovborg.  In the play Lovborg, Hedda's ex-lover, is a man.  In the film, Lovborg is a white woman, Eileen (Nina Hoss), and currently in a relationship with one of Hedda's old schoolmates, Thea (Imogen Poots). 

Most of "Hedda" takes place at a lavish party that Hedda throws to try and impress Professor Greenwood (Finbar Lynch), who will decide the course of George's career.  Eileen, Thea, and Hedda's current lover Brack (Nicholas Pinnock) are all in attendance, giving Hedda the chance to manipulate the situation to her own advantage.  Hedda Gabbler is one of the great antiheroines of the stage, and Da Costa and Tessa Thompson have done their very best to bring her fascinating, complex nature to the screen.  This Hedda is a passionate woman of great appetites and terrible regrets, who is introduced to us at the beginning of the film deciding to abandon a suicide attempt.  While the races and sexualities of the various characters in play have been adjusted to match changing audience sensibilities, Hedda continues to be a provocative figure simply because she's a bold, often unsympathetic woman who refuses to behave.       

The cast is excellent.  Eileen, Hedda, and Thea are now three brilliant, ambitious women whose actions and worldviews we can compare and contrast as they fight for their place in the social order.  Eileen is a recovering alcoholic, and we see her at her best and at her worst as she falls under Hedda's influence.  Nina Hoss delivers her most substantive performance in the English language that I've seen to date, and it's a tremendously brave one.  Imogene Poots is firmly in a supporting role, but effortlessly becomes sympathetic or threatening as the situation demands.  Tessa Thompson, however, is the main event as Hedda, a woman who can be a careless social butterfly, a shrewd social climber, a lovelorn unfortunate, and a jealous brat all at the same time.  But not without a cost.    

I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the production design, with its gorgeous costuming, lavish settings, and invigorating musical performances.  "Hedda" follows in the steps of "Babylon" and "Saltburn" by having most of the action revolve around a party that goes out of control.  While this doesn't appear to have the budget of either of those pictures, it certainly nails the intoxicating hedonism.  I also appreciate that this is another example of a story and characters that are traditionally associated with a very European milieu that is being reinterpreted and reexamined through the lens of the black and queer experience.  In film, that's still a perspective that barely exists, and every new addition is a precious one.  

"The History of Sound," directed by Oliver Hermanus, is almost the polar opposite of "Hedda" in style and approach. While "Hedda" is loud and colorful and full of incident, "The History of Sound" one of those gentle, contemplative, completely earnest historical romances that is a little difficult to take at face value.  Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor play a pair of young musical academics, Lionel Worthing and David White, who meet in the 1910s and form a lasting bond, despite several long separations.  The most significant time they spend together is a journey through rural Maine on an ethnomusicology song-collecting mission.  The structure and the themes are similar to "Brokeback Mountain," except with folk singing taking the place of the sheep herding.

There's a very old fashioned feel to "The History of Sound" in its pacing and tone.  The film isn't afraid of long silences or letting its characters just exist in moments of rest or conversation.  It's clear from very early on that Lionel and David are in a homosexual relationship, but their connection often comes across as more fraternal than passionate, as a deep friendship rather than a romantic pairing.  Their initial attraction to each other is based on their mutual appreciation of music, and the music in the film is mostly vocal pieces, often rough and unaccompanied.  Likewise, the filmmaking is very sedate, with a limited color palette and a lot of time spent in dim interiors or the natural world.  The film is lovely, but it takes a while to acclimate to the severity and the minimalism of its elements.  

I like the performances - Mescal gets the majority share of the screen time as we largely follow Lionel's POV.  He handles the musical requirements of the part and the Kentucky accent without any issue.  More importantly, he does a great job of showing his character adapting and changing as he moves between worlds - his humble beginnings on a tiny farm in Kentucky, his apartment in Maine where he progresses in his academic career, and then loftier environments in Italy and England.  O'Connor's David presents more of a mystery, or rather he's giving us an incomplete impression of a charismatic, lively man who Lionel is obviously going to fall in love with.  It's a familiar concept, but O'Connor plays it well enough that it worked for me.

"The History of Sound" is traversing well-tread ground, but I was charmed by its willingness to go against the grain and give us an old-fashioned epic romance, filled with more longing than intimacy.  And like "Hedda," movies like this are still rarer than you'd think.

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