Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. Brazil-based critic Ela Bittencourt, who has been reviewing for MUBI, joins to discuss a selection of movies in the Berlin Film Festival, which presented its slate online in advance of its public summer incarnation. Movies discussed include The Girl and the Spider, Natural Light, Azor, Tsarenska Scaling, and the short Fury Is a Feeling Too (1983). You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Op...
Mar 10, 2021•49 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. London calling! Critic Jonathan Romney weighs in on the best from the Berlin Film Festival, which presented its slate of films online in advance of a public summer incarnation. Movies discussed include the prize-winners Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn from Radu Jude, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Maria Speth’s Mr. Bachmann and His Class, Alonso Ruizpalacios’s A Cop Movie, and more. You can read show notes with lin...
Mar 08, 2021•34 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. We’re giving a sneak preview of the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, which presented its slate of films online this week (in advance of a public summer incarnation). Critic-programmer Jordan Cronk joins the episode to give a run-down on what’s new at Berlin and a selection of highlights including the latest from Hong Sangsoo and adventurous new work. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substack.c...
Mar 05, 2021•39 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. We’re talking about new (or new-ish) releases this week, including Judas and the Black Messiah, The Father, I Care a Lot, and Saint Maud. Joining me for this episode are a supergroup of two regulars: critics Beatrice Loayza and Nicholas Russell. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substack.com Music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Feb 28, 2021•1 hr 8 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This one's a wild journey with guest Carlos Valladares, a critic and Yale graduate scholar. Carlos is working on a project about the director Jerry Schatzberg, so our conversation starts with his films Scarecrow and Honeysuckle Rose. Then it’s off to the races: Alain Resnais’s Je t’Aime, Je t’Aime; Looney Tunes; the late Joan Micklin Silver; Kevin Jerome Everson's Park Lanes; and Bill Gunn’s great lost studio film, Stop! For complet...
Feb 18, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. The Rotterdam film festival provides a launching pad for cutting-edge cinema that often ends up screening in New Directors / New Films and other series. To discuss highlights from this year's edition -- including the prize-winning Indian film Pebbles and the eye-opening Dutch drama Feast -- I’m joined by Jordan Cronk, veteran critic and founder/programmer of the Acropolis Cinema in Los Angeles. (We also catch up with a Sundance docu...
Feb 12, 2021•35 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. As our week of Sundance comes to a close, Amy Taubin returns to discuss Judas and the Black Messiah, Bring Your Own Brigade, a discovery in the episodic series section, the Sparks documentary, and her reason for missing the Summer of Soul concerts in 1969. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substack.com Music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Feb 06, 2021•48 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. On this Sundance episode, critic Jessica Kiang (Variety, The Playlist) shares some of her recent favorites, including The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet, the Sparks documentary, and Sabaya. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substack.com Music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Feb 03, 2021•32 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. On this episode about the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, I’m joined by critic Beatrice Loayza, a frequent guest on the show. Among the movies we discuss are Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth, 1980s throwback Censor, A Glitch in the Matrix (from the director of Room 237), and Amalia Ulman’s El Planeta. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substack.com Music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets. This episode was co...
Feb 02, 2021•40 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. We’re back at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, this time talking with critics Nicholas Russell and Eric Hynes, who will both write about the festival at Reverse Shot. The discussion covers Eight for Silver, Passing, and the nuances of criticism and reception at festivals. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substack.com Music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass
Feb 01, 2021•43 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. On this episode we talk about highlights from the first days of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival with Eric Hynes, curator of film at Museum of the Moving Image. We discuss two stand-outs from this year’s edition—Summer of Soul, directed by Questlove, and President, directed by Camilla Nielsson—and a documentary about a Visconti star, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at...
Jan 30, 2021•35 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. On this episode we look at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival with the one and only Amy Taubin, who has been attending since the year of Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Taubin shares some of the movies and events she is looking forward to and reflects on what’s different about this pandemic-era edition of the festival. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substack.com Music: “Monserrate”...
Jan 29, 2021•31 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. This is the 20th episode of the podcast, and we’ll be sharing our highlights from the year in movies. You might notice a few likely candidates are missing, such as First Cow or Time, but that’s because we tried to talk about movies that haven't been covered as much on this podcast, though a few old favorites do sneak in. It’s been a long year so I got some brilliant critics to share their picks: Amy Taubin, contributing editor at Ar...
Dec 31, 2020•1 hr 21 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. On this episode I’m tackling a wonderful collection of new films by director Steve McQueen called Small Axe. The five Small Axe movies are on Amazon, completed today with the release of the fifth and final film, Education. Small Axe is a fascinating and ambitious chronicle of West Indian experience in London—personal, political, and cultural—and it’s definitely an event. First, veteran critic Jonathan Romney (Screen Daily, Sight &am...
Dec 18, 2020•1 hr 52 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. This week, I start with a featured look at Time, directed by Garrett Bradley. I talk with the wonderful Amy Taubin about the movie, which is one of the year’s best. On the second half of the episode, I look at a terrific collection of 1970s horror available at the Criterion Channel. Critics Beatrice Loayza and Christina Newland join me to discuss the pleasures and politics of the movies, including: Death Dream, Tobe Hooper’s The Tex...
Oct 26, 2020•1 hr 13 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. This week, we’re trying something different. After our usual discussion of recently watched movies, I dig into a special topic with another guest. First I trade New York Film Festival highlights with critics Beatrice Loayza and Susannah Gruder. Then on the second half, I talk about the possible futures facing moviegoing and film exhibition because of the pandemic, with Eric Hynes of the Museum of the Moving Image. We’ll have more of...
Oct 12, 2020•1 hr 10 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to folks to talk about what they've been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time is R. Emmet Sweeney, producer of DVDs and Blu-rays for Kino Lorber. Rob has had two projects lately: looking for good movies to watch with his daughter, and watching fantastical Indian genre movies. Titles discussed include: Wee Willie Winkie and Heidi, both starring Shirley Temple; Mamoru Hosoda’s Wolf Children; The Wizard of O...
Oct 01, 2020•48 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time are critics Eric Hynes (curator of film, Museum of the Moving Image), Jordan Cronk (founder, Acropolis Cinema), and Beatrice Loayza, talking about their highlights from the Toronto International Film Festival. The movies include: Nomadland, The 180-Degree Rule, Pieces of a Woman, The Inheritance, Quo Vadis, Aida?, Fauna, Downstr...
Sep 24, 2020•59 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time are critics Amy Taubin and Michael Koresky. This time of year, our heads are usually full of brand-new movies from film festivals, which are a good way to preview fall releases as well as titles that might otherwise be hard to see. We talked about a number of films including: American Utopia, Spike Lee’s movie of David Byrne’s B...
Sep 18, 2020•1 hr 3 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time is veteran critic Jonathan Romney who writes for leading film publications such as Sight & Sound and Screen Daily. Here Jonathan gives us a terrific account of his favorites from the Venice International Film Festival. It’s a jam-packed preview of bold new movies to look out for down the road. That includes the newest films ...
Sep 11, 2020•48 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time is culture critic Sheila O’Malley. Sheila writes about movies for the Roger Ebert site and the Criterion Collection, and keeps a terrific blog called The Sheila Variations. Her delightful column Present Tense includes entries ranging from the Miracle on Ice to "back-ting" to Nick Nolte to Frank O'Hara's movie love. We began our ...
Sep 04, 2020•50 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time is Soraya Nadia McDonald, culture critic for The Undefeated. Nicolas had read Soraya’s terrific writing as a fan before having the pleasure of publishing her work. Soraya (a finalist for this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Criticism) expertly weaves together different arts and issues with an illuminating clarity that feels effortless...
Aug 29, 2020•1 hr 12 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time is Brazil-based critic and programmer Ela Bittencourt. We’ve worked with Ela on a number of articles, and her most recent project was the Venice Days program at the upcoming Venice film festival. Documentary was the focus of our conversation, ranging from a new Iranian film about a prison for women and girls, Sunless Shadows, to...
Aug 15, 2020•55 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time is Justin Chang, a staff critic at the Los Angeles Times and, before that, chief film critic at Variety. Ordinarily, we would be comparing notes at a film festival, so it was a pleasure to catch up with Justin virtually and hear his thoughts on a changing film world. Among the movies we discussed were Buñuel’s unsettling 1961 fi...
Aug 08, 2020•52 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time is Amy Taubin, a mainstay of film criticism and a longtime inspiration. It’s always a rich and varied journey when Amy shares her viewing notes, and this time was no different. Among the movies discussed were John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix, Charles Burnett’s police drama The Glass Shield, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Love and Basket...
Aug 01, 2020•50 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time is Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image as well as a veteran of journalism and criticism. We discussed some new possible opportunities for his film institution during these times. And then we got into the movies: Nicholas Ray’s They Live By Night; an unsettling 1971 Vietnam vet film called Welcome Home, ...
Jul 15, 2020•47 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold is Richard Brody of The New Yorker. They discuss The Irishman as a home viewing experience; The 11th Green, an unusual new drama involving alien life and the postwar United States; Melvin Van Peebles's debut feature, The Story of a Three-Day Pass; Top of the Heap, a police drama directed by and starring Christopher St. John; and the prosp...
Jul 10, 2020•40 min
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold is Ashley Clark, director of film programming at BAM, and a longtime film critic. The lineup spans from the limits of leisure to the extremities of war and political action. There’s The Green Ray, Eric Rohmer’s achingly poignant summer film; Winter Soldier, a heart-stopping Vietnam documentary that’s sometimes forgotten; a rewarding pairi...
Jun 01, 2020•53 min
Critic Nick Pinkerton and programmer Nellie Killian join Nicolas Rapold to discuss isolation viewing and their recent favorites. You may have encountered Nick’s criticism in a variety of publications as well as DVD essays and commentary. And Nellie’s superb series Tell Me: Women Filmmakers, Women’s Stories is featured on Criterion Channel this month. They three talk about the last things they've been watching, including: the pre-code films of William Wellman; the extraordinary documentary series...
May 22, 2020•1 hr 3 min
Critics Amy Taubin and Michael Koresky join Nicolas Rapold to discuss their recent favorites, including The Fabulous Baker Boys (and Michelle Pfeiffer’s star presence), Damien Chazelle’s new Netflix series The Eddy, and much more. Original music by Nate Kinsella Photo by Steve Snodgrass
May 19, 2020•59 min
