Ep. 302: Dan Sullivan on Berlin 2025: The Ice Tower, Little Trouble Girls, Smile at Last, Canone Effimero Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For my latest dispatch from the Berlin film festival, I sat down with Dan Sullivan, a programmer at Film at Lincoln Center (and also, as he points out, a former colleague!). Films discussed include: The Ice Tower (Lucile Hadzihalilovic), Smile at Last (Leida Laius and Arvo Iho), Little Trouble Girls (Urska Djukic), Living the L...
Feb 20, 2025•30 min
Ep. 301: Guy Lodge on Berlin 2025: Kontinental ’25, Living the Land, Eel, Shoah doc All I Had Was Nothingness Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For my latest dispatch from the Berlin film festival, I sat down with Guy Lodge of Variety to talk about another batch of highlights from across the lineup. The titles we discussed include: Kontinental ’25 (directed by Radu Jude), Living the Land (Huo Meng), the stunning debut feature Eel (Chu Chun-teng), and a documentary ...
Feb 19, 2025•31 min
Ep. 300: Julia Loktev on My Undesirable Friends: Part I—Last Air in Moscow Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Last October I interviewed the filmmaker Julia Loktev during the New York Film Festival about her latest work, My Undesirable Friends: Part I—Last Air in Moscow. This week her film has its international premiere at the Berlinale. It’s about independent journalists in Russia before and after the start of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. When I spoke to...
Feb 19, 2025•28 min
Ep. 299: Jordan Cronk on Berlinale 2025: What Marielle Knows, new James Benning and Kevin Jerome Everson, Olmo, After Dreaming, Paul Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Look at me, I’m at the 75th Berlinale! For my latest dispatch, I spoke with a regular of the festival, Jordan Cronk, about titles from a mix of sections. Films discussed include: James Benning’s latest, Little Boy, and Kevin Jerome Everson’s latest, When the Sun is Eaten (from Forum and Forum Expanded...
Feb 17, 2025•31 min
Ep. 298: Jonathan Romney on Mickey 17 and Dreams at Berlin 2025 Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Berlinale begins its 75th edition this year, and I’ve been busily seeing movies and talking to critics here at the festival. To kick things off I’m joined by Jonathan Romney (of Screen Daily and the Observer) to discuss the hotly anticipated Mickey 17 from multiple-Oscar-winner Bong Joon Ho, headlined by Robert Pattinson, and the latest Michel Franco provocation, D...
Feb 15, 2025•30 min
Ep. 297: RaMell Ross on Nickel Boys Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. One of the great films of 2024 and now nominated for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay, Nickel Boys is the fiction feature debut of RaMell Ross, who adapted Colson Whitehead’s novel with Joslyn Barnes, after previously directing the Oscar-nominated Hale County This Morning, This Evening. I was lucky enough to speak with Ross about making the movie, especially crafting its form, the screenwritin...
Feb 11, 2025•26 min
Ep. 296: Chloe Lizotte on OBEX, Endless Cookie, Luz, The Reality of Hope, and 4DX Cinema Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. It’s been far too long since Chloe Lizotte, deputy editor of MUBI Notebook, has been on the podcast, so we joined forces for one more (final?) episode on Sundance 2025... and beyond! We talked about Sundance titles OBEX (directed by Albert Birney), Endless Cookie (Pete and Seth Scriver), Luz (Flora Lau), and The Reality of Hope (Joe Hunting). B...
Feb 09, 2025•46 min
Ep. 295: Amy Taubin on BLKNWS, Ricky, Sorry Baby, Alabama Solution, The Things You Kill Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. There are still great movies to catch up with from Sundance 2025, and once again I was fortunate to talk with the one and only Amy Taubin about her highlights. Films we discussed included stand-outs and prize-winners from this year's edition: BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (directed by Kahlil Joseph), Ricky (Rashad Frett), The Things You Kill (Ali...
Feb 09, 2025•42 min
Ep. 294: Manohla Dargis on Sorry Baby, Atropia, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, BLKNWS, Omaha Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest Sundance 2025 podcast, I was fortunate again to discuss the festival and its movies with Manohla Dargis, chief film critic of The New York Times. In addition to reflecting on Sundance’s planned move and the backdrop to the festival, we talked about a whole selection of films from this year’s edition: Sorry, Baby (directed by Eva...
Feb 05, 2025•1 hr
Ep. 293: Eric Hynes on Mad Bills to Pay, The Perfect Neighbor, Rebuilding, Seeds Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest Sundance 2025 podcast, I spoke with Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image, with whom I kicked off this edition's podcasts. This time we talked about a mix of films, both fiction and documentary, prize-winners and not: Rebuilding (directed by Max Walker-Silverman and starring Josh O'Connor), The Perfect Neighbor (G...
Feb 02, 2025•41 min
Ep. 292: Alissa Wilkinson on Sundance 2025: Predators, Zodiac Killer Project, Life After, Middletown Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest Sundance 2025 podcast, I spoke with New York Times movie critic Alissa Wilkinson about some highlights in this year’s edition. We ended up talking about key documentaries: Predators (directed by David Osit), Middletown (Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine), Life After (Reid Davenport), and Zodiac Killer Project (Charlie Sha...
Jan 30, 2025•37 min
Ep. 291: Bilge Ebiri on Sundance 2025: Peter Hujar’s Day, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Sly Lives!, The Ugly Stepsister, The Thing... Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. In chilly Park City—but indoors—I sat down for another Sundance episode, this time with Bilge Ebiri of Vulture / New York magazine. Sorting through the movies we’ve seen, we talk about the new Ira Sachs movie, Peter Hujar’s Day, and the new Kiss of the Spider Woman adaptation (directed by Bill Condon), p...
Jan 28, 2025•56 min
Ep. 290: Steven Soderbergh on Presence, shooting in the first-person, and recent viewing Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Steven Soderbergh’s first-person ghost thriller Presence opens today in theaters—almost exactly one year after its premiere screening at Sundance, where I first saw it. I sat down with Soderbergh and asked him about directing and shooting the film, which entailed essentially embodying the character of the haunting presence as we move through a ...
Jan 24, 2025•25 min
Ep. 289: Eric Hynes on Sundance 2025: Preview and 2000 Meters to Andriivka Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival has begun, and I kick things off with curator Eric Hynes of the Museum of the Moving Image. We talk about where Sundance’s evolving plans for the future, we trade a few titles we’re anticipating in the lineup, and finally we talk about a film that premiered on the first night. That would be 2,000 Meters to Andri...
Jan 24, 2025•41 min
Ep. 288: Mark Asch on David Lynch RIP, Best of Spectacle, Wicked, La Commune (Paris, 1871) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. In memory of David Lynch (1946-2025), I rang up critic Mark Asch to commiserate and reflect on his work, both movies and other art. We were also originally going to talk about the world of noted Brooklyn microcinema Spectacle Theater, where Asch volunteers, so we do that as well, covering rarely shown works from Logistics to Hamburger Dad. We...
Jan 23, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Ep. 287: Payal Kapadia on All We Imagine as Light Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light keeps gaining new admirers and garnering more honors (since winning the Grand Prix at Cannes last spring). I had a wonderful conversation with Kapadia about the myriad directorial decisions that went into creating her nuanced portrait of three women in Mumbai—two roommates, Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha), who work at a hospital, ...
Jan 10, 2025•32 min
Ep. 286: Dave Kehr on To Save and Project 2025: 7th Heaven, A Circle in the Fire, Maria Candelaria, and more Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. To kick off the new year, I welcomed back Dave Kehr, curator in the department of film at the Museum of Modern Art, to talk about a perennial favorite starting now: To Save and Project, the festival of preservation and restoration, which received a Film Heritage award this year from the National Society of Film Critics as we...
Jan 09, 2025•29 min
Ep. 285: Amy Taubin 2024 Finale: Juror No. 2, Robert Frank, Nosferatu, The Clock, His 3 Daughters, Flow, Conclave Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest episode, I close out the year with the one and only Amy Taubin, as we catch up with a few movies we missed to talk about in 2024. The discussion includes Juror No. 2 (directed by Clint Eastwood), Nosferatu (Robert Eggers), His Three Daughters (Azazel Jacobs), Conclave (Edward Berger), and Flow (Gints Zilb...
Dec 29, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Ep. 284: Tyler Taormina, director of Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, on Christmas Eve Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This year the stars aligned for a movie set on Christmas Eve and its director to hop on the ol’ podcast in time for Christmas Eve! Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is making its way through cinemas, and it was a pleasure chatting with him about his recent viewing, which brought a number of terrific titles to my attention, along wi...
Dec 24, 2024•31 min
Ep. 283: Beatrice Loayza and Adam Nayman Do Their Bests (2024 Edition) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Tis season of making lists and checking them twice, and this December, I was pleased to welcome back Beatrice Loayza (of The New York Times and other publications) and Adam Nayman (of The Ringer and elsewhere) to the podcast. Loayza and Nayman share a few outstanding films that stuck with them from 2024, plus an assortment of other high points from their lists, ...
Dec 22, 2024•55 min
Ep. 282: Thomas Beard of Light Industry on The Old Dark House, Japanese Paper Films, Community Action Center, and More Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I am a longtime admirer of Light Industry, home to wonderful screenings with original programming, and in my humble opinion a true New York institution. Shortly after Halloween, I was delighted to chat with programmer Thomas Beard, who together with Ed Halter developed and oversees Light Industry. The conversation ...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Ep. 281: Errol Morris on Separated, his new documentary about the Trump immigration policy of separating children from families Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Separated, the latest documentary from the Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris, is about the people and bureaucracy behind the border immigration policy enforced by the first Trump administration: namely, to separate children from their families at the border as a deterrent. In this new interview,...
Dec 01, 2024•25 min
Ep. 280: IDFA 2024 with Abby Sun on A Want in Her, An American Pastoral, 1957 Transcripts, TWST Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For my next dispatch from the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam 2024, I sat down with Abby Sun, editor-in-chief of Documentary Magazine, who has also programmed extensively. Amid the hustle and bustle at IDFA we discussed A Want in Her (directed by Myrid Carten), An American Pastoral (Auberi Edler), The 1957 Transcripts (Ayele...
Nov 24, 2024•33 min
Ep. 279: IDFA 2024 with Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia, feat. The Guest, Higher Than Acidic Clouds, A Frown Gone Mad, Chronicles of the Absurd Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This year at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, where I have seen so much outstanding work, I was fortunate to sit down with its artistic director, Orwa Nyrabia. The 2024 IDFA edition is the seventh edition under his leadership, and at the end of his term next summer he will b...
Nov 24, 2024•27 min
Ep. 278: Sean Baker on Anora and its influences, and his recent viewing Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. We’re back with an extra-special episode that’s chock full of pure movie love! Written and directed by Sean Baker, Anora starring Mikey Madison keeps winning over audiences as it’s expanded to theaters across the country, with its New York story of a stripper (Madison) and her star-crossed relationship with a billionaire’s son (Mark Eydelshteyn). Baker is a vor...
Nov 14, 2024•20 min
Ep. 277: Shonni Enelow on Acting: We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Mid-to-Late Rohmer, The Beast Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I’m happy to welcome back scholar Shonni Enelow for another thoughtful chat about acting and performance, and how they reflect or respond to changing times. Enelow, a professor at Fordham University who just published a new book on Joanna Hogg, writes an acting column at Reverse Shot. We talk about realism in 21st-century ...
Oct 29, 2024•46 min
Ep. 276: Mark Asch on Blitz, Hellraiser, Saturday Night, Northern Lights, plus Compensation Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the 62nd New York Film Festival wound down, I nabbed critic Mark Asch after the press screening of Blitz for a little chat. We shared some initial impressions of Steve McQueen’s Blitz, the festival’s closing night film, and then went through a few notable selections from the Revivals section: Hellraiser (Clive Barker), Northern Lights (Jo...
Oct 23, 2024•28 min
Ep. 275: Rumours Directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson Talk About Movies Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week sees the release of Rumours, the new movie from Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson. It's about a remote gathering of world leaders (played by Cate Blanchett and Roy Dupuis among others) who face a looming crisis and encounter a giant brain in a forest -- for starters. During the New York Film Festival, I jumped at the chance ...
Oct 14, 2024•18 min
Ep. 274: Alissa Wilkinson on NYFF: Suburban Fury, My Undesirable Friends, Wang Bing, 7 Walks with Mark Brown, Nickel Boys Redux Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. In the concluding week of the 62nd New York Film Festival, I sat down with Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times to hear her thoughts on a few titles. Two were world premieres: Suburban Fury (directed by Robinson Devor) and My Undesirable Friends: Part 1—Last Air in Moscow (Julia Loktev). The other titles...
Oct 13, 2024•36 min
Ep. 273: Amy Taubin on NYFF: Nickel Boys, My Undesirable Friends, New Godard and Albert Serra, No Other Land, Rumours Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the New York Film Festival presents a kind of best-of-the-year selection for its 62nd edition, I sat down with the one and only Amy Taubin to discuss a few highlights. Titles discussed include: Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’s extraordinary debut fiction feature which we had just seen on opening night; Jean-Luc Godard’...
Oct 06, 2024•1 hr 27 min
