Claim OwnershipThe Last Thing I Saw
Subscribed: 39Played: 2,610
Subscribe
© All rights reserved
Description
Critic Nicolas Rapold talks with guests about the movies they've been watching. From home viewing to the latest from festivals and retrospectives. Named one of the 10 Best Film Podcasts by Sight & Sound magazine. Guests include critics, curators, and filmmakers.
237 Episodes
Reverse
Ep. 237: Screen Slate leader Jon Dieringer on Civil War, plus Roadhouse, Quiet on Set, The Eclipse
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. With the country in the grips of Civil War fever, I join forces with Screen Slate editor-in-chief Jon Dieringer, who was fresh from seeing the much-anticipated movie at a local Regal Cinema. We talk about the different layers to Civil War and Alex Garland’s approach to depicting a future United States that’s broken up into separate regions and armies and has a belligerent president in the White House. (The plot follows four journalists—played by Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, and Stephen McKinley Henderson—who are driving to Washington, D.C., to try to interview the president.) Jon and I also share some other recent watches, including the documentary series Quiet on Set (directed by Mary Robertson & Emma Schwartz), the Road House remake (Doug Liman), Larry Fessenden’s latest horror movie, Blackout, and nature’s own mighty contribution to cinema.
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 236: CPH:DOX 2024 with Mads K. Mikkelsen on Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other, Kix, and much more
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For this episode I journeyed to Copenhagen for the 2024 edition of CPH:DOX, and talked about my favorite documentaries from the selection with the festival’s Head of Program Mads K. Mikkelsen. These include films about a Hungarian skateboarder growing up (Kix, directed by Dávid Mikulán and Bálint Révész), about the relationship between photographer Joel Meyerowitz and writer Maggie Barrett (Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other, directed by Jacob Perlmutter and Manon Ouimet), and about Brazilian love motels (Eros, directed by Rachel Daisy Ellis). We also discuss The Limits of Europe (directed by Apolena Rychlíková, featuring journalist Saša Uhlová), Balomania (Sissel Morell Dargis), La Base (Vadim Dumesh), Once Upon a Time in a Forest (Virpi Suutari) and the documentary that went on to win the festival’s top prize, The Flats (Alessandra Celesia).
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 235: K.J. Relth-Miller on Berlin Retrospectives: Lubitsch, Helke Sander, Carlos Saura, and more
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For a number of festivals now, I’ve been fortunate enough to delve into the retrospective selections with programmer K.J. Relth-Miller from the Academy Museum (who also teaches at CalArts). This time we talked about the special Retrospective selections drawn from the Deutsche Kinemathek and films in the Classics section at the Berlinale. We start with Ernst Lubitsch’s 1921 silent comedy Kohlhiesel’s Daughters, which screened with live musical accompaniment, and then move on to later selections such as The Germans and Their Men (1989, Helke Sander), Herzsprung (1992, Helke Misselwitz), Angels of Iron (1980, Thomas Brasch), and Deprisa, Deprisa (1981, Carlos Saura).
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 234: Radu Jude on Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I present a chat with Radu Jude, the director of what’s already the most acclaimed movie of the year: Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World. The wild, funny, multi-layered movie follows a young production assistant, Angela (the incredible Ilinca Manolache), on her endless days working in Bucharest, Romania. Jude creates a crazy quilt that captures what it’s like to get through the world today, folding in Angela’s hilariously foulmouthed Instagram videos and weaving in clips from a Communist-era 1981 film about a female taxi driver. Nina Hoss and Uwe Boll also have memorable roles. I first saw Jude’s continually surprising film at its world premiere in the Locarno Film Festival, and we spoke on the eve of its U.S. release on March 22.
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 233: Christine Smallwood on Chantal Akerman and La Captive
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week a new book on Chantal Akerman by Christine Smallwood enters the world, a volume about Akerman’s wholly original Proust adaptation La Captive that’s the latest in the Fireflies Press series of Decadent Editions focused on films of the 2000s. So I was delighted to speak with Smallwood about Akerman and her film's hypnotic exploration of the strange relationship between a wealthy odd young man Simon (Stanislas Mehrar) and his lover, Ariane (Sylvie Testud), reworking the fifth volume of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Note: The episode opens with a passage about La Captive from Smallwood’s book.
Smallwood is the author of the novel The Life of the Mind and a regular contributor to publications such as The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, Bookforum and The New York Times Magazine. La Captive will screen March 30 at Metrograph followed by Vertigo, with Smallwood in person. On March 19 at Light Industry, she’ll present an illustrated lecture adapted from her book.
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 232: Eric Hynes on First Look and True/False 2024: Flying Lessons, There Was, There Was Not, Knit’s Island, Achilles
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As I did last year, I joined forces with Eric Hynes, curator of film at Museum of the Moving Image, for a double fest discussion, covering True/False, the Missouri nonfiction festival, and MoMI’s own annual First Look in New York. We discuss titles including: Flying Lessons (directed by Elizabeth Nichols), Magic Mountain (Mariam Chachia & Nik Voigt) Knit’s Island (Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L’helgoualc’h), A Photographic Memory (Rachel Elizabeth Seed), Achilles (Farhad Delaram), Spermworld (Lance Oppenheim), I Like It Here (Ralph Arlyck), Obsolete (Sumira Roy), and There Was, There Was Not (Emily Mkrtichian). Listeners will find that many movies discussed on here and in previous episodes can be seen in First Look at MoMI (March 13 to 17).
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 231: Berlin 2024 with Jordan Cronk: Who by Fire, Tu Me Abrasas, Abiding Nowhere, Chime, Direct Action, More Docs
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest episode about the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, I’m pleased to reunite with Jordan Cronk, who helped kick off this year’s series. We round up some vital highlights that hopefully will wend their way to other cinemas: Who by Fire, Philippe Lesage’s prize-winner in the Generation section; Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s mid-length Chime; Ben Russell and Guillaume Cailleau’s Direct Action, winner in the Encounters section; Matías Piñeiro’s Tu Me Abrasas; and Abiding Nowhere, the latest in Tsai Mingliang’s Walker series. Plus some words on the documentaries At Averroes and Rosa Parks (directed by Nicolas Philibert, last year’s Golden Bear winner), Favoriten (Ruth Beckermann), and Intercepted (Oksana Karpovych).
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 230: Berlin 2024 with Keva York: Christine Angot’s Une Famille, Spaceman, Berlin Critics’ Week
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I continue my reporting from the 2024 Berlin Film Festival by welcoming my latest guest to the podcast, critic Keva York, who is writing for Reverse Shot and ABC Arts (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation). We discuss the new film from French writer Christine Angot, Une Famille (A Family); the Adam Sandler movie Spaceman, directed by Johan Renck; and two selections from Berlin Critics’ Week, An Evening Song for Three Voices (directed by Graham Swon) and the Riar Rizaldi short Notes from Gog Magog.
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 229: Berlin 2024 with Jessica Kiang: Dahomey, Pepe, Through the Graves the Wind Is Blowing, The Human Hibernation, The Devil’s Bath
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I continue my reporting from the Berlin Film Festival 2024 with a grand episode starring Jessica Kiang, who is writing about the Berlinale for Variety and The New York Times. The movies we discuss include: Pepe (directed by Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias), Dahomey (Mati Diop), Through the Graves the Wind Is Blowing (Travis Wilkerson, director of Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?), The Human Hibernation (Anna-Cornudella Castro), and The Devil’s Bath (Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala). Stay tuned for more from Berlin!
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 228: Berlin 2024 with Guy Lodge: Hong’s A Traveler’s Needs, Matt and Mara, Suspended Time
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. It’s onward and upward with the Berlin Film Festival 2024, as I join forces with Guy Lodge of Variety and spotlight three movies from this year’s selection which feel differently pivotal for each respective filmmaker: A Traveler’s Needs (directed by Hong Sangsoo and starring Isabelle Huppert), Suspended Time aka Hors du Temps (Olivier Assayas), and Matt and Mara (Kazik Radwanski). Stay tuned for more from Berlin!
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 227: Berlin 2024 with Jonathan Romney: Architecton, Cuckoo, La Cocina, No Other Land
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Berlin Film Festival continues to roll out some remarkable premieres, and so I sat down with critic Jonathan Romney (Screen Daily) to reflect on a few of them. Movies discussed include: La Cocina (directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios), Architecton (Victor Kossakovsky), No Other Land (from an Israeli-Palestinian collective consisting of Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor), and the batso thriller Cuckoo (Tilman Singer), which comes to U.S. theaters on May 3.
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 226: Berlin 2024 with Jordan Cronk: Bruno Dumont’s Empire, The 14-Hour Movie Called Exergue, Henry Fonda for President, The Adamant Girl, Republic
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I’m chatting all about the wild assortment of movies at the Berlin Film Festival. First up is critic and programmer Jordan Cronk, who takes us through one highly distinctive movie after another: Empire (directed by Bruno Dumont), a 14-Hour movie called Exergue (Dimitris Athiridis), Henry Fonda for President (Alexander Horwath), The Adamant Girl (P.S. Vinothraj), and Republic (Jin Jiang).
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 225: MoMA Double: Dave Kehr on Buñuel in Mexico + Joshua Siegel on the 20th To Save and Project
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week's episode is a MoMA Film Department double feature! First I chat with Dave Kehr, curator in MoMA's department of film, about their grand Buñuel in Mexico series, featuring the surrealist maestro’s often underappreciated era, with films such as Los Olvidados, El, Nazarin, and El Gran Calavera. Then Joshua Siegel, curator in MoMA's department of film, joins to discuss To Save and Project, the museum’s annual festival of film preservation, celebrating its 20th anniversary edition. We cover a tantalizing slice of the selection including Bushman (David Schickele), Toute une nuit (Chantal Akerman), Undercurrent (Kozaburo Yoshimura), Blues People (Skip Norman), and shorts by DEVO.
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 224: Jordan Cronk on Rotterdam 2024, Cinema Scope, The Iron Claw
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I catch up with critic Jordan Cronk on a number of urgent topics. We discuss the esteemed film magazine Cinema Scope, which just published its final issue, and the vital importance of its work over the past 25 years, thanks to editor Mark Peranson and a host of outstanding contributors. Then Jordan shares highlights from the latest International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), including Grey Bees (directed by Dmytro Moiseiev), Under a Blue Sun (Daniel Mann), Dream Team (Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn), and Swimming Home (starring Chris Abbott, Mackenzie Davis, Ariane Labed, and directed by Justin Anderson), with a few words on the top Tiger Award winner, Rei (Tanaka Toshihiko). Last but not least, Jordan offers his expert evaluation of the wrestling epic The Iron Claw.
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 223: Manohla Dargis and Amy Taubin on Sundance 2024
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For my final (?) episode on Sundance Film Festival 2024, I am pleased to present a grand finale with Manohla Dargis, chief film critic of The New York Times, and the inimitable Amy Taubin (who will be filing a report for Screen Slate). They discuss the role of Sundance, what felt different about this year’s edition (and what didn’t), and the question of story. And we discuss a number of films: A Real Pain (directed by Jesse Eisenberg), God Save Texas: Hometown Prison (Richard Linklater), Presence (Steven Soderbergh), Rob Peace (Chiwetel Ejiofor), War Game (Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber), Exhibiting Forgiveness (Titus Kaphar), Black Box Diaries (Shiori Ito), Will & Harper (Josh Greenbaum), and Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass). Also included: Porcelain War, Sugarcane, Gaucho Gaucho, Desire Lines, and Freaky Tales, Kneecap, and a special recommendation for cats.
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 222: Sundance ’24: Eric Hynes on Union, Sasquatch Sunset, Good One, Eno
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For my latest episode on Sundance Film Festival 2024, I reconvened with Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image. He had seen more movies, I had seen more movies, and so we talked about some highlights: Union (Stephen Maing and Brett Story), Sasquatch Sunset (David and Nathan Zellner), Good One (India Donaldson), Eno (Gary Hustwit), and Nocturnes (Anupama Srinivasan and Anirban Dutta).
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 221: Sundance 2024: Jon Dieringer on Presence, Between the Temples, I Saw the TV Glow, A Different Man, It’s What’s Inside, Little Death
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For my latest episode on the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, I sat down in Park City with Jon Dieringer, editor and publisher of Screen Slate. He was making his first trip to the festival and we discussed plenty of movies: Presence (directed by Steven Soderbergh), Between the Temples (Nathan Silver), I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun), A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg), It’s What’s Inside (Greg Jardin), and Little Death (Jack Begert).
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Ep. 220: Sundance 2024: Alissa Wilkinson on Look Into My Eyes, Girls State, A.I. Docs, Will & Harper, Coup d’Etat
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For my latest episode on the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, I welcome returning guest Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times. Films discussed include: Look Into My Eyes (directed by Lana Wilson), Girls State (directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss), a couple of docs about artificial intelligence (Eternal You and Love Machina), Will & Harper (directed by Josh Greenbaum and co-starring Will Ferrell), and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Johan Grimonprez).
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 219: Sundance 2024 with Eric Hynes: Preview, Power, Black Box Diaries
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. January is here and it’s time for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. To kick off this year’s suite of episodes, I am delighted to join forces again with Sundance stalwart Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image. We discuss the latest edition of the festival, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and we sample a few films that screened early on. Films discussed include: Power (directed by Yance Ford), Black Box Diaries (Shiori Ito), and Agent of Happiness (Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó). Check back for more reports from snowy-but-not-oppressively-so Park City!
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Ep. 218: Amy Taubin on I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Fellow Travelers, Sundance Past + My Napoleon
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. It’s time to ring in 2024 with the one and only Amy Taubin! After some thoughts on the challenges of the contemporary film landscape, she talks about I Heard It Through the Grapevine, the elegiac 1982 civil-rights documentary featuring James Baldwin and co-directed by the late Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley, playing at Film Forum; Too Much Sleep; Fellow Travelers, a dramatic series on Showtime; and remembrances of Sundance highlights past, on the occasion of a Criterion Channel selection from the festival’s history. I also share my experience watching Ridley Scott’s Napoleon in a special format.
Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at:
rapold.substack.com
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States