The Last Thing I Saw

Ep. 159: Sundance 2023 Four with Jessica Kiang: Past Lives, Passages, Notes on Hybrid Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Sundance Film Festival has officially wound down but I still have good movies to share with you! This time I joined forces with critic Jessica Kiang, who was reviewing films for Variety at the festival. Our discussion spans two episodes. Part One begins with notes on the hybrid nature of this edition, then moves on to Celine Song’s wonderful debut feature Past Lives and Ira Sachs’s latest drama, the finely observed love triangle Passages. 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

Ep. 158: Sundance 2023 Three with Eric Hynes Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Sundance Film Festival is back in action, returning to in-person screenings and events after two virtual years. I caught up again with Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image, about some of Films of Interest at the festival, including The Tuba Thieves, Rotting in the Sun, Cat Person, and Fremont. 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

Ep. 157: Sundance 2023 Two with Amy Taubin Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Sundance Film Festival is back in action, returning to in-person screenings and events after two virtual years. I sat down with Last Thing I Saw regular and veteran of Sundance, critic Amy Taubin, about some of the highlights (and otherwise) at the festival, including Past Lives, Polite Society, and a Nam June Paik documentary. 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

Ep. 156: Sundance 2023 One with Eric Hynes Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Sundance Film Festival is back in action, returning to in-person screenings and events after two virtual years. To discuss the 2023 edition and some movie highlights so far, I spoke with longtime attendee Eric Hynes, curator of film at MOMI. 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

Ep. 155: Snubbed! with Michael Koresky, Eric Hynes, and Edo Choi Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. This month the Museum of the Moving Image starts the series “Snubbed: Great Movies, No Nominations.” The rules are simple: very fine films that were ignored, overlooked, or snubbed (if you will) by the Academy. For this episode I’m joined by the delightful series co-programmers: Eric Hynes, curator of film at MOMI; Michael Koresky, co-editor of Reverse Shot; and Edo Choi, associate curator at MOMI. Each chose a couple of films to represent the varieties of snubbage that occur when the Oscars and the history of great movies fail to intersect. 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

Ep. 154: Avatar 2, Michael Mann, Nope, Casa Susanna, Rosa von Praunheim, World Cup Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The thrilling conclusion of 2022 has arrived, starring critic Mark Asch in a discussion about all of the pressing matters of the moment in the film world: Avatar 2: The Way of Water, digital cinema and Michael Mann, Nope, Casa Susanna, Rosa von Praunheim, and the 2022 World Cup. 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

Ep. 153: Bruce Bennett on Blue Collar, Canyon Passage, Ragtime, Ken Burns Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. This episode I continue my conversation with writer Bruce Bennett, who’s back on the show with a new garden of cinematic delights. In the first half, we talked about Chabrol and Skolimowski and British rarities, and now in the second half, Bruce takes us deep into the heart of America on film through Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar, Jacques Tourneur’s Canyon Passage, Milos Forman’s Ragtime, and Ken Burns’s recent series The U.S. and the Holocaust. 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

Ep. 152: Amy Taubin on Godard, Greatest Films, and more Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m Nicolas Rapold. Critic Amy Taubin joins the podcast for another delightful year-end discussion. She shares her thoughts on Godard by way of See You Friday, Robinson, a remarkable film that connected the late French master in a correspondence with Iranian writer-director Ebrahim Golestan. Then it’s on to the ever-vexing issues and omissions involved in selecting the greatest films of all time, viewed from Taubin’s career-spanning vantage point. Also: a TV recommendation. 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

Ep. 151: Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza on Eternal Daughter, Genre, Recent Listing Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m Nicolas Rapold. It’s been about a year since I was last joined by critics Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza, so it felt like high time to get the band (i.e., the two of them) back together. We discussed some recent viewing which inevitably meant talking about the Greatest poll we had all participated in, as they share some of the criteria behind their ballots. 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

Ep. 150: Laura Poitras on All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m Nicolas Rapold. One of the year’s best films is All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, directed by Laura Poitras. It’s about the life and work of photographer Nan Goldin, and her successful activism against the Sackler Family, whose company PurduePharma produced Oxycontin. Poitras and Goldin were collaborators on the film, which is a deeply moving work of art itself, featuring Goldin’s candid photography and her tough and evocative voiceover. Goldin speaks openly of traumas in her past, including the tragic story of her sister, Barbara. I’m a huge admirer of Poitras’s films, and as she generously pointed out, I first interviewed her in 2010 about her film The Oath, which was followed by her features Risk and Citizenfour, winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary. It was an honor to talk with her again about All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, winner of the Golden Lion in Venice and more recently Best Documentary from the New York Film Critics Circle. 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