That’s a question confronted by Oliver Hermanus ’s new film The History of Sound, which premiered here in Cannes on May 21. The film, based on a short story by Ben Shattuck, is about two young men who first meet in 1917,

In a way, then, The History of Sound must count as a daring project: an expensive Hollywood film in which two of cinema's buzziest male actors are cast as gay lovers.