British actor Josh O’Connor stepped onto the Croisette twice in 48 hours, becoming the through-line of Cannes’ closing stretch with Kelly Reichardt’s 1970s art-heist drama The Mastermind and Oliver Hermanus’ period romance The History of Sound. Speaking after The Mastermind premiere, he told reporters, “there’s a kindness to working with Kelly which you don’t often get,” a remark that drew warm laughter in the press room. Confronted with Paul Mescal’s earlier description of him as “incredibly silly,” O’Connor laughed “I am,” confirming an on-set diet of eight Jolly Ranchers a day shared during the folk-song shoot.
The Mastermind, financed and distributed by Mubi, runs 110 minutes and follows JB Mooney, an unemployed carpenter who bungles a theft of Arthur Dove paintings in suburban Massachusetts just as Vietnam-era protests reach his doorstep. Reichardt trades her usual Pacific Northwest canvas for New England yet keeps sight on marginal lives, letting O’Connor’s slumped posture speak louder than any getaway montage. The film bowed in competition on 23 May and remains in the Palme d’Or hunt.
Two nights earlier, O’Connor was absent from the red carpet while finishing a Steven Spielberg shoot, leaving Mescal to handle press duties for The History of Sound. The World War I love story tracks two musicologists who roam post-war Maine recording ballads and slowly falling for each other. Mescal’s live singing drew hushed applause, though reviewers split on the drama’s muted tempo. He dismissed comparisons to Brokeback Mountain as “lazy and frustrating,” insisting Hermanus’ film celebrates intimacy rather than repression.
Clips of Mescal praising his “silly” co-star lit up social media; O’Connor’s good-humoured embrace of the label quickly spread on X, adding levity to a serious competition slate. Early critical signals favour The Mastermind, with Vulture hailing O’Connor’s work as his finest yet, while Sound earns plaudits for musical atmosphere even as some critics find it listless. Both titles already have North American distribution through Mubi, positioning the duo for an autumn rollout that could extend their festival rivalry into awards season.
