The Last Thing I Saw

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

Ep. 217: Rob Sweeney on Two by Twohy, Cannibal Corpse, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, Locked In, Tom Palazzolo Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold! What better time than the holidays to share my chat with movie pal R. Emmet Sweeney, who produces DVDs and Blu-rays at Kino Lorber. He talks about two films written by David Twohy, Warlock and Grand Tour: Disaster in Time; The Day the Earth Caught Fire, a New York repertory-viewing highlight; and Locked In, viewed on TUBI. But it all begins with praise for the Cannibal Corpse documentary Centuries of Torment, which Sweeney selected as his best film experience of the year in the Metrograph Journal. I chime in with a few words about shorts by Tom Palazzolo. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 216: Beatrice Loayza and Adam Nayman on May December, Zone of Interest, Knock at the Cabin, Fallen Leaves, and more Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold! As we approach the end of the year, I bring together a wonderful pair of critics who have appeared together here before: Adam Nayman (The Ringer) and Beatrice Loayza (The New York Times). In the spirit of the season, I asked them about their favorite movies of 2023, from Todd Haynes’s May December to M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin and Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, and we reflect on Jonathan Glazer’s confronting The Zone of Interest. Adam and Beatrice also share their favorite first watches from the year. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass