By Miranda Murray
CANNES, France (Reuters) -Irish actor Paul Mescal rejected comparisons of his new period romance “The History of Sound” with gay cowboy classic “Brokeback Mountain” on Thursday, saying the only thing they had in common was the characters spend time together in a tent.
“The History of Sound,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, stars Mescal and Josh O’Connor as Lionel and David, who meet at the Boston Conservatory in the early 1900s and fall in love over their shared love of folk songs.
However, the couple gets separated when David gets drafted into World War I. After the war, they reunite to hike across Maine in search of oral tradition songs to record, with the adventure having a profound effect on both men later in life.
“I personally don’t see the parallels at all between ‘Brokeback Mountain’ other than the fact that we spend a little bit of time in a tent,” Mescal told journalists at Cannes.
Variety described the new film as “‘Brokeback Mountain’ on sedatives” while The Guardian said it was “a quasi-Brokeback Mountain film whose tone is one of persistent mournful awe at its own sadness” and gave it two out of five stars.
Mescal rejected the comparisons as lazy and frustrating, saying the focus of his film, unlike Ang Lee’s 2006 Oscar winner, was a celebration of the characters’ love rather than repression.
South African director Oliver Hermanus, who was nominated for a BAFTA for “Living,” said that comparing his film with one that came out 20 years ago showed that there was a deficiency.
“There should be more films about the sort of dynamics and the nuances of queer relationships, of relationships that are beyond the context of what most movies probably deal with.”
Mescal, who made a name for himself playing damaged characters in “All of Us Strangers” and “Aftersun” before his Hollywood turn in “Gladiator II,” said his attraction to such roles was based on instinct.
“I personally celebrate actors who lean into their artistic compulsion. And if that’s what I’m about to do at this moment in my career, I’m going to just hopefully pursue that for a little while longer until that compulsion changes,” he said.
(Reporting by Miranda Murray and Rollo Ross; Editing by Conor Humphries)
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