The Last Thing I Saw

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. I’m back at the Cannes Film Festival after a pandemic absence and couldn’t be more delighted to share the latest and greatest in films with you. For the kick-off episode, I’m joined by Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image and writing about Cannes for Reverse Shot. We review the lineup of the 2022 edition, highlighting some titles and filmmakers, and also share a quick look at the opening film, Coupez!, from director Michel Hazanavicius (whose film The Artist won the Academy Award for Best Picture). 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. 114: The Aesthetics of Cope, The Cathedral, Deepfake, Slade in Flame with Chloe Lizotte Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The show is back from spring break with a special episode starring writer Chloe Lizotte, a contributing editor at Le Cinema Club. She joins us talking about her work for her wide-ranging Reverse Shot column Event Horizon, including her essay about strange media phenomena during the pandemic, called “The Aesthetics of Cope,” and her thoughts on the film The Cathedral and the dangerous art of deepfakes. I chime in with thoughts on the 1975 movie Slade in Flame, starring the band Slade. 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. 113: Jacques Audiard on Paris, 13th District Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. Paris, 13th District is the latest movie from Jacques Audiard, a writer-director whose work has spanned many genres, from The Beat That My Heart Skipped to Rust and Bone to The Sisters Brothers. Paris 13th District is Audiard’s unabashed look at a younger generation in love, and it starts by focusing on a woman, Emilie (Lucie Zhang) and her roommate, briefly turned lover, Camille (Makita Samba). But it gradually shifts to the story of Nora, a newcomer to Paris played by Noémie Merlant, who gets mixed up literally with a cam girl named Amber Sweet. Its soulful and beautiful moments have a way of sneaking up on you with their intensity and then commanding your attention. I talked with Audiard about making the movie (which adapts a graphic novel by Adrian Tomine). He spoke with the help of a translator and in a brief span of time had a lot of illuminating things to say. 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. 112: S.S. Rajamouli's RRR, Laida Lertxundi's Inner Outer Space, Leo McCarey's Part Time Wife, Kinuyo Tanaka's Love Letter with R. Emmet Sweeney Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. It’s time for a good old-fashioned romp through recent viewing, with guest R. Emmet Sweeney of Kino Lorber. He shares his experience with S. S. Rajamouli’s new adventure, RRR, as well as the latest work from Laida Lertxundi, a (partial?) Leo McCarey feature that’s of a piece with The Awful Truth, and a documentary about stuntmen. Plus: Kinuyo Tanaka’s Love Letter. 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. One of the greatest action movies of all time is also one of the most beautiful: Mad Max: Fury Road. It was on the top ten lists of 2015 and more than a few best of the decade lists. But making the movie was no walk in the park, and a new oral history by Kyle Buchanan is full of well-researched and entertaining detail about the movie’s sometimes insane production process, which involved stops and starts dating back to the 1990s. Buchanan is a pop-culture reporter at The NeW York Times, writing its Projectionist column and interviewing a daunting array of Hollywood talent. The new book is called Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, and it draws on over 125 new interviews, including stars Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, director George Miller, and a fascinating and wide-ranging selection of other cast and crew. It’s a multilayered look at making movies in a changing Hollywood, with all its delays and demands, and of course all the challenges of shooting an apocalyptic action film in the desert. I spoke with Buchanan a few weeks ago about the book, which is published by William Morrow and is available now. 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 110: Nadav Lapid on Ahed’s Knee Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The filmmaker Nadav Lapid has made one tense, kinetic, indelibly original drama after another: Policeman, The Kindergarten Teacher, Synonyms, and now Ahed’s Knee. Ahed’s Knee premiered at the Cannes film festival last year where it shared the Jury Prize with Memoria, and it opened in New York on March 18. The film follows an Israeli director who is presenting one of his movies in a small town, thanks to an invitation by a young, eager library official. But when he arrives, she asks him to sign a government form saying exactly what topics he can and cannot talk about. The director—who’s named only with the letter Y—lashes out at his host. But the small community doesn’t have exactly the reaction he might expect. The film’s title refers to a well-known incident when a Palestinain teenager named Ahed Tamimi slapped an Israeli soldier, and a conservative politician responded by saying that she should be shot in the knee. I spoke with Lapid about the film’s ferocious vision and how it explores the idea of speaking out, among other things. 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. 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