The Last Thing I Saw

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. This year the True/False Film Fest welcomed guests back for another edition, fully in-person with guests from all over the globe. I try to go every year to take advantage of its delicious nonfiction smorgasbord, and joining me to talk about the selection is Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image and a longtime attendee of the festival. We talked about the festival and films such as After Sherman, Mr. Landsbergis, The Balcony Movie, Vedette, Factory to the Workers, and GES-2. After our discussion, listen to our interview with Joe Hunting, the director of We Met in Virtual Reality, also shown at this year’s edition following its triumphant premiere at Sundance. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Village Voice loomed large for me as a critic and an editor. The Voice I grew up with may be long gone, but it’s been a joy to continue reading my favorite critics who wrote there. For this episode, I’m honored to bring together three all-star alumnae of the Village Voice to talk about movies. Manohla Dargis, the co-chief film critic of The New York Times, started writing about avant-garde cinema at the Voice early in her career. Lisa Kennedy has written for The New York Times, Essence, American Theatre, Variety, and the Denver Post, on both film and theater, and she was an editor at the Voice for a decade, editing pieces by Manohla Dargis and Amy Taubin. Amy Taubin is a contributing editor at Artforum and Sight & Sound, who wrote full-time at the Voice for 14 years; This episode is something like a dream come true for me, and so I had to ask a little about their memories of the Voice, before we talked about some recent highlights from their viewing. And I encourage everyone to spend some quality time with the Village Voice archives. My deep thanks to Amy, Lisa, and Manohla for taking the time to talk. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 107: Berlin #6 with Edo Choi (Dark Glasses, Rewind & Play, Sonne, A Little Love Package, Terra que marca) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. We continue with the Berlin festival series, highlighting the intriguing new films you should know about. For what might be the last episode on this year’s edition, I talked with Edo Choi, assistant curator at Museum of the Moving Image. We discuss Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Alain Gomis’s Rewind & Play, Kurdwin Ayub’s Sonne, Gaston Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, and Raul Domingues’s Terra que marca. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 106: Berlin #5 with Giovanni Marchini Camia (Unrest, Queens of the Qing Dynasty, Mutzenbacher, The Death of My Mother, Alcarras) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. We continue with the Berlin festival series, highlighting the intriguing new films you should know about. This time I talk with Giovanni Marchini Camia, a critic (Sight & Sound and more), editor (Fireflies Press), and member of the Locarno selection committee. We discuss Unrest, Queens of the Qing Dynasty, Mutzenbacher, The Death of My Mother, and the Golden Bear winner Alcarras. Stay tuned for more from Berlin! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 105: Berlin #4 with Inney Prakash (Dry Ground Burning, Instant Life, Jet Lag, Super Natural, The Kegelstatt Trio) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. We continue with the Berlin festival series, highlighting the intriguing new films you should know about. This time I talk Fun at the Forum (and Forum Expanded) with programmer Inney Prakash of Maysles Cinema and Prismatic Ground. We discuss Dry Ground Burning (from Adirley Queiros and Joana Pimenta), Instant Life (Anja Dornieden, Juan David González Monroy, Andrew Kim), Jet Lag (Zheng Lu Xinyuan), Super Natural (Jorge Jacome), and The Kegelstatt Trio (Rita Azevedo Gomes). Stay tuned for more from Berlin! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 104: Berlin #3 with Jordan Cronk (The Novelist’s Film, Afterwater, Coma, United States of America, That Kind of Summer, more) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. We continue with the Berlin festival series, highlighting the intriguing new films you should know about. I joined forces with Jordan Cronk, critic (MUBI Notebook and elsewhere) and programmer (Acropolis). We discussed new films by Hong Sangsoo, Bertrand Bonello, James Benning, Denis Côté, and Darezhan Omirbaev. Stay tuned for more from Berlin! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 103: Berlin 2022 #2 with Guy Lodge (Flux Gourmet, Robe of Gems, Small Slow but Steady, Brother in Every Inch, Fire, AEIOU – A Quick Alphabet of Love) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Berlin festival series continues, highlighting the intriguing new films you should know about. This time I talk with Guy Lodge, a regular critic for Variety. We discuss Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Natalia Lopez Gallardo’s Robe of Gems, Sho Miyake’s Small, Slow but Steady, Alexander Zolotukhin’s Brother in Every Inch, Nicolette Krebitz’s A E I O U – A Quick Alphabet of Love, and, one more time, Claire Denis’s Fire. Stay tuned for more from Berlin! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 102: Berlin 2022 #1 with Jonathan Romney (Fire, Rimini, Incredible But True, Passengers of the Night, A Piece of Sky, See You Friday, Robinson) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Berlin International Film Festival is underway and I kicked off this edition’s podcasts with series regular Jonathan Romney, a critic writing for Screen Daily and The Observer among other publications. We talked about notable premieres such as Claire Denis’s Fire, Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, Mikhael Hers’s Passengers of the Night, Michael Koch's A Piece of Sky, and Mitra Farahani’s See You Friday, Robinson. Stay tuned for more from Berlin! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 101: Sundance 2022 #7 with Jessica Green (Mija, Alice, God’s Country, The Exiles, Free Chol Soo Lee, Framing Agnes) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. So it turns out I have one more episode of Sundance films to share. I was joined by Jessica Green, artistic director of the Houston Cinema Arts Society, who brought several films that haven’t been discussed yet on the podcast. Jessica came on toward the end of the festival to talk about Mija, The Exiles, God’s Country, and other thought-provoking movies from this year’s edition. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 100: Maggie Gyllenhaal on The Lost Daughter Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. It's the 100th episode! As a working critic and journalist, I always hope these podcasts add something new to the discussion. And for that I have to thank my guests, all the talented critics and filmmakers who have joined me, and of course my listeners for listening. Finally, a special thank-you to my substack subscribers. Your support makes the podcast possible. This episode, I talked with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who made her acclaimed directorial debut with The Lost Daughter, adapted from the Elena Ferrante novel. Olivia Colman stars as Leda, a literature professor on vacation in Greece who is haunted by the decisions she made as the mother of two daughters. Jessie Buckley plays Leda's younger self, and Dakota Johnson plays Nina, a woman from a big family on the beach who has a daughter of her own. I talked with Gyllenhaal about adapting the film’s mix of present and past, getting permission from Ferrante, and casting Olivia Colman and Dagmara Dominczyk (who plays Callie, a first-time mother in Nina’s family). Gyllenhaal also talks about the process of bringing the film into being from her initial vision. Last but not least... she tells me the last movie she saw, which is a great one. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass