The Last Thing I Saw

Episode 95: Sundance 2022 #2 with Eric Hynes (Dual, We Met in Virtual Reality, A House Made of Splinters, Jihad Rehab) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Sundance Film Festival is here, there, and everywhere, screening in a virtual edition. We’re nearing the end of a packed weekend of premieres and I joined forces once again with Eric Hynes, curator of film at Museum of the Moving Image, to begin sorting through the movies. We share initial reactions to a few including Riley Stearns’s Dual, Joe Hunting’s We Met in Virtual Reality, Maryna Er Gorbach's Klondike, Simon Lereng Wilmont’s A House Made of Splinters, and Meg Smaker’s Jihad Rehab. You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Sundance Film Festival is here, there, and everywhere, screening in a virtual edition that’s no less important for beginning the 2022 movie calendar. I joined forces with Eric Hynes, curator of film at Museum of the Moving Image, to talk about the independent-minded festival in general and to highlight a couple of movies that jumped out to us in the opening day (or two). You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow’s Forecast” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 93: Days of Horror with Mike Civins Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Every October my good friend Mike Civins does a horror movie marathon. He watches 31 titles over 31 days, like clockwork. I have always been curious about his project, which happily ranges far and wide and includes movies that aren’t often thought of as a horror. This year he watched the Alien movies, including Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien Resurrection, but he also saw Wolf’s Hole, a movie from Daisies director Vera Chytilova. Also on the menu were goodies like Angst, Dolls, and a truly horrifying film, The Cremator. So, Mike finally came on the podcast to talk about his adventures, both the highs and the lows. Mostly I just quiz him at random about titles from his list so I can listen to the outlandish plots. You may be wondering why I’m posting this now, and the answer is, why not? If you like what you hear, why not support the podcast by signing up: rapold.substack.com Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. At some point last year I learned that Caroline Golum -- a critic whom I read on Screen Slate -- was planning to make a movie about a medieval mystic. For this episode, Caroline joins us to talk about movies set in olden times and how they envision the past. Two recent titles came to mind: The Last Duel, which is based on a true story from medieval France, and The Green Knight, which is inspired by a 14th-century chivalric romance. Our conversation led to storytelling set in other time periods, including the nautical fiction of Master and Commander and Guillermo del Toro’s recent remake of Nightmare Alley. Stay tuned to the end when Caroline shares selections from her Budget Middle Ages viewing list. You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 91: 1996 with Nick Davis Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. It’s time to look back at the year in the movies—the year 1996, that is. Scholar and pal Nick Davis joins me to revisit movies from a pivotal year early in our rabid moviegoing. Our trips down memory lane take us through Hollywood productions like The People vs. Larry Flynt and Jerry Maguire, and independent visions like Wayne Wang’s Smoke and Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus. What did we think then? What do we think now? Did we ever recover from seeing Crash when our brains were so soft and vulnerable? Nick Davis is a professor at Northwestern University, researching and teaching in the areas of film, queer theory, feminist and gender studies, and 20th/21st-century American literature. (We also remember seeing Surviving Picasso but aren't ready to talk about that yet.) You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 90: Amy Taubin on the Best of 2021 Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. It’s that time of year again, when we look back at the year in movies. Joining me to share her highlights is the critic Amy Taubin, a regular guest on the podcast. We start with one movie you might not have heard as much about this year, and go on to trade our top picks, with reflections on another strange year for moviegoing and moviemaking. Here’s to the best of 2021, and beyond! You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. One of the year’s best films about culture is Listening to Kenny G, from filmmaker Penny Lane (who directed Hail Satan?). now available on streaming. If the name Kenny G sets off alarm bells in your head, rest assured that this is not a goofy movie about something “so bad it’s good” or that pushes a case for Kenny G as an unsung master. Instead, Lane’s fascinating portrait crystallizes a number of insights about the way culture and taste work, and it inspires further questions about the many assumptions and absurdities surrounding the subject. So last month I interviewed the director on the occasion of her film’s screening as opening night at DOC NYC and as a selection of IDFA, which all followed its world premiere at the Toronto film festival. As bonus, Lane also had a little to say about early reality shows. Listening to Kenny G is part of Bill Simmons’s Music Box series and can be seen on HBO MAX. You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Paul Verhoeven’s hotly anticipated new movie, Benedetta, is set mostly in a convent in the 17th century, following its title character as she becomes a nun and rises in the ranks. The movie typically bold and provocative about the workings over power and organized religion and about Benedetta’s rich fantasy life. Margaret has long been immersed in Verhoeven’s world, and talked with the director at length as part of her book of interviews with him. As has critic Adam Nayman, another Verhoeven-head and author of It Doesn’t Suck: Showgirls and books on Paul Thomas Anderson and David Fincher (out now). At the end I also can’t resist asking them about Licorice Pizza, another new release. Look out for Margaret’s review of Benedetta on Screen Slate and Adam’s forthcoming writing on the subject. You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week we look at some outstanding documentary highlights premiered at IDFA(International Documentary Festival Amsterdam), including Sergei Loznitsa’s post-Soviet portrait Mr. Landsbergis and an exciting new voice in Diem Ha Le and her film Children of the Mist. Plus: 100-year-old Indian river boats, a Dziga Vertov premiere, egg collecting, and movies made entirely from living room windows. I’m joined by critic and journalist Eric Hynes, curator of film at Museum of the Moving Image and a regular on the podcast. You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. Back in the spring, I watched The Scary of 61st through the Berlin film festival, where it had its world premiere. I had to watch it on my laptop, holed up at home, with pandemic anxiety in the air. Somehow the mood was appropriate for experiencing the film, which tells a wild story that’s lurid, funny, unnerving, and often over the top. All of which is a good match for the frenzied state of its main characters: two roommates who unwittingly move into a New York apartment once owned by Jeffrey Epstein. They end up being haunted by the Epstein saga of human trafficking and unfathomable corruption. One roommate undergoes a kind of possession, and her friend becomes obsessed with the Epstein case, after a stranger comes knocking talking of conspiracy theories. The director of The Scary of 61st is Dasha Nekrasova. She also plays the strange visitor, opposite her co-writer, Madeline Quinn, and Betsey Brown. You probably know Dasha already from her co-hosting Red Scare, the enormously popular podcast. Our talk focused on what she’s been watching during the pandemic, which tied in a little bit into The Scary of 61st. In that sense it’s a fairly traditional episode of The Last Thing I Saw, leading off with a perhaps surprising choice of director of comfort movies. The Scary of 61st opens in New York on December 17, after a run on December 2 at Los Feliz 3 in L.A. You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass