The Last Thing I Saw

Ep. 347: Venice 2025 – Jessica Kiang on Silent Friend, Duse, Cover-Up, Girl, The Holy Boy, plus In the Hand of Dante Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For a grand finale to my episodes from the 2025 Venice Film Festival, I sat down with critic Jessica Kiang, who is writing reviews from Venice for Variety. Among the films discussed are Silent Friend (directed by Ildiko Enyedi), Cover-Up (Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus), Duse (Pietro Marcello), Girl (Shu Qi), No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook), and The Holy Boy (Paolo Strippoli), with my few additional sleep-deprived words on In the Hand of Dante (Julian Schnabel). Please note: this was recorded before the end of the festival. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 346: Venice 2025 - Jonathan Romney on L’Etranger, The Voice of Hind Rajab, Remake, A House of Dynamite Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I have been busily watching movies at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, and for my latest episode, I sit down with critic Jonathan Romney, who is writing about the festival for Screen Daily and the Observer. Among the films discussed are The Voice of Hind Rajab (directed by Kaouther Ben Hania), Remake (Ross McElwee), and L’Etranger (Francois Ozon), with further thoughts on A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow) and Dead Man’s Wire (Gus Van Sant). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 345: Venice 2025: Chloe Lizotte on A House of Dynamite, Dead Man’s Wire, Claire Simon, Wayne McGregor, Le Souffleur, More Late Fame Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I have been busily watching movies at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, and for my latest episode, I sit down with Chloe Lizotte, the deputy editor of MUBI's film journal Notebook, and the Event Horizon columnist at Reverse Shot. Among the movies we discuss are A House of Dynamite (directed by Kathryn Bigelow), Dead Man’s Wire (Gus Van Sant), Writing Life (Claire Simon), and Le Souffleur (Gaston Solnicki), with some more words on Late Fame (Kent Jones). Lizotte also shares impressions from her visit to Wayne McGregor’s 3D choreographic installation On the Other Earth, in the Dance Biennale. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 344: Venice 2025: Jordan Cronk on The Smashing Machine, Late Fame, Nuestra Tierra, Below the Clouds, Barrio Triste, and more Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I have been busily watching movies at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, and for my latest episode, I sit down with critic Jordan Cronk. Among the Venice world premieres we discussed are The Smashing Premiere (directed by Benny Safdie), Nuestra Tierra (Lucrecia Martel), Below the Clouds (Gianfranco Rosi), Late Fame (Kent Jones), Barrio Triste (Stillz), and Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes (Gabriel Azorin). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 343: Venice 2025: Guy Lodge on Father Mother Sister Brother, The Testament of Ann Lee, The Wizard of the Kremlin, Rose of Nevada Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I have been busily watching movies at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, and for my latest episode, I sit down with critic Guy Lodge of Variety. Among the Venice world premieres we discussed are Father Mother Sister Brother (directed by Jim Jarmusch), The Testament of Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold), The Wizard of the Kremlin (Olivier Assayas), Rose of Nevada (Mark Jenkin), and an additional pick that I’ll let Guy reveal himself. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 342: Venice 2025: Glenn Kenny on Frankenstein, Bugonia, Jay Kelly, After the Hunt, No Other Choice, Broken English, Lo Spettro Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I have been busily watching movies at the Venice Film Festival, and for my first episode, I sit down with critic Glenn Kenny, who’s writing for RogerEbert.com. Among the Venice world premieres discussed are Frankenstein (directed by Guillermo del Toro), Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos), No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook), Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach), After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino), the Marianne Faithfull documentary Broken English (Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth), and a selection from the Venice Classics lineup of restorations, Riccardo Freda’s Lo Spettro (The Ghost), starring original scream queen Barbara Steele. Glenn also talks about his work on the Biennale College Cinema, the results of which are screening at the festival. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 341: Amy Taubin on My Undesirable Friends, Highest 2 Lowest, Terence Stamp, Chantal Akerman, What Could Go Wrong, The Pitt Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I welcome back the one and only Amy Taubin to the podcast for a catch-up about what she’s been watching (and a few words about things to come). Among the titles and topics discussed are the essential new documentary My Undesirable Friends: Part One—Last Air in Moscow (whose director, Julia Loktev, Taubin recently interviewed); Spike Lee’s latest, Highest 2 Lowest; the dearly departed star Terence Stamp; the upcoming MoMA series on Chantal Akerman and on Hurricane Katrina; the TV show The Pitt; and the podcast on AI from screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, What Could Go Wrong. I also throw in a couple of recently viewed movies I enjoyed. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 340: Ehsan Khoshbakht on Great Expectations, the British retrospective of Locarno 2025 Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I’m reporting from the Locarno film festival, where the annual retrospective has once again been quite popular. So I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to speak with the retrospective’s programmer, Ehsan Khoshbakht, who also co-directs Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna and also curated Locarno’s 2024 tribute to Columbia Pictures. Khoshbakht explains the basis of the series, providing fascinating insights into what fueled British postwar cinema, crosscurrents with other cinemas, and the thought processes behind film programming. Among the titles discussed (adding new ones to those already discussed on the podcast): Locarno’s 1952 Golden Leopard winner Hunted (directed by Charles Crichton), It Always Rains on Sunday (Robert Hamer), The Woman in Question (Anthony Asquith), as well as a look at the director Jack Lee (Turn the Key Softly). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 339: Jordan Cronk on Locarno 2025: Dry Leaf, Mare’s Nest, Le Lac, Sorella di Clausura, Two Seasons Two Strangers Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I’m reporting from the Locarno film festival, where the second week has not disappointed. I sat down again to chat with Jordan Cronk, critic and founder of Acropolis Cinema in Los Angeles. Films discussed include: Dry Leaf (Alexandre Koberidze), the follow-up from the director of When Do We See When We Look at the Sky?; Mare’s Nest (Ben Rivers); Le Lac (Fabrice Aragno, aka longtime DP/collaborator with Jean-Luc Godard); Sorella di Clausura (Ivana Mladenović); and Two Seasons, Two Strangers (Sho Miyake). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 338: Jessica Kiang on Locarno 2025: The Best of the Postwar British Retrospective + Becoming Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I’m reporting from the Locarno film festival, which every year has an outstanding retrospective that’s a parallel essential to the premieres of new films. To discuss this year’s retro, a deftly curated tribute to British postwar cinema called Great Expectations, I’m joined by a regular guest, critic and programmer Jessica Kiang, who is filing reviews for Variety but also, like me, inhaling swathes of this retrospective. Titles discussed include Obsession (1949, Edward Dmytryk), The Yellow Balloon (1953, J. Lee Thompson), It Always Rains on Sundays (1947, Robert Hamer), Turn the Key Softly (1953, Jack Lee), To Be a Woman (1951, Jill Craigie), The Elephant Never Forgets (1953, John Krish), Train of Events (1949, Sidney Cole, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden), Passport to Pimlico (1949, Henry Cornelius), The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950, Frank Launder), Time Without Pity (1957, Joseph Losey), and Never Let Go (1960, John Guillermin). Plus, just because: a bonus, brand-new film from Kazakhstan, Becoming (Zhannat Alshanova). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass