The Last Thing I Saw

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I like to bring together many kinds of movies on the show and this week’s deluxe episode is a case in point. We haven’t talked much about horror movies lately and so I was happy to get the chance to speak with Rebecca Hall about her role in The Night House, directed by David Bruckner. The Night House is a haunting horror movie about grief that opens on August 20, and we’ll hear more later about Hall's creating a character who faces both jump scares and weighty emotional burdens. But first we preview a few titles that we haven’t covered yet, with Giovanni Marchini Camia, a critic and editor (Fireflies Press) who attended the Cannes film festival. Key titles that premiered there will screen in New York and/or Toronto: Bruno Dumont’s dazzling satire France, starring Lea Seydoux; Gaspar Noé’s Vortex, a change of pace about an older couple; and Hong Sangsoo’s In Front of Your Face, his latest film (for now). 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. It’s been a while since I’ve really focused on a documentary on the show, and a terrific opportunity came up with the release of The Viewing Booth. The Viewing Booth is a movie that’s been at festivals but for whatever reason, did not make its way to theaters until now. Which is unfortunate because it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen about how we sort out what we think and feel about the hundreds of things we are shown each and every day—intellectually, politically, emotionally. So I was very happy to talk with the film’s director, Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, and Eric Hynes, curator of film at Museum of the Moving Image, which is giving The Viewing Booth a two-week theatrical run. We talk about how the movie works and the questions it raises with its simply but ingenious concept. One final note: as you’ll hear, this is my first episode in a long time that I have recorded in the great outdoors, so enjoy the mild breeze. 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 my favorite films this year hands-down is Friends and Strangers, directed by James Vaughan. It’s about a timid twenty-something guy in Sydney, Australia, who goes on a camping trip with a woman his age. Skipping ahead a bit, he kind of goes nowhere fast and gets bogged down on a job with a wealthy loudmouth. The movie had its world premiere at the Rotterdam film festival, and during the festival’s June anniversary celebration, I had the chance to talk with Vaughan. Vaughan chose silent cinema for our subject and sent a list of films that he had freshly encountered over the past year. We settled on a few: G.W. Pabst's Pandora’s Box, Diary of a Lost Girl, and The Love of Jeanne Ney; and from F.W. Murnau his spectacular retelling of Faust. But we also ended up talking about Eisenstein’s work, and got into how these movies have affected Vaughan’s thinking as a filmmaker. Friends and Strangers will be released in the U.S. down the road by Grasshopper Films so look out for it. 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. It’s not as well-known as the main competition, but I have always loved Cannes Classics and its selection of restorations, revivals, and film documentaries. The genuine discoveries and clever programming are outstanding, but many people find it hard to fit them into the usual crazy Cannes schedule. So, this year I vowed to put together a special Cannes Classics episode. There are far too many worthy titles to cover them all, but I got together with Carlos Valladares and talked about some highlights. Including: The Moon Has Risen, from Japanese filmmaker and actress Kinuyo Tanaka; La Guerre Est Finie, from Alain Resnais; and the much-loved Powell and Pressburger film I Know Where I’m Going. I also talk about the wonderfully odd Friendship’s Death, starring Tilda Swinton in an early role and directed by film theorist Peter Wollen; and also Repentance, a brash Georgian satire from the 1980s about a dictatorial mayor who comes back from the dead, sort of. For show notes and more, go to: 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. We heard from Amy Taubin at the beginning of this Cannes series, and now that the festival has wound down, I got together with Amy once more. This time, we single out some strong movies that could use more attention. That includes a remarkable group of films set in Latin America: Prayers for the Stolen, La Civil, and Clara Sola. We also talk about the Bangladeshi drama Rehana, and Amy gives a few preliminary thoughts on a much-anticipated title that arrived late in the festival. If you like what you hear, please support this podcast: 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. For this week’s episode, I catch up with my colleague Jonathan Romney, a veteran critic of the festival circuit who regularly files for Screen Daily. For this year’s blockbuster Cannes lineup, he joins the podcast to talk about a strong batch of films that we haven’t heard about yet. That includes two Iranian movies: A Hero from Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi, and Hit the Road, from Panah Panahi. Plus there was a curious new movie co-directed by Miguel Gomes, who you might know from Arabian Nights; a new Jacques Audiard movie, Paris 13th District; and a highly unpredictable Russian film called Petrov’s Flu. It’s a mix of adventuresome films that we’ll definitely be hearing more of down the road. 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. By happenstance, we still have some of the biggest titles at Cannes to discuss, and I couldn’t be happier to talk about them with the critic Mark Asch, a longtime colleague who I’ve worked with as both an editor and a writer over the past decade and change. Mark brings a lot of goodies to the program, including Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch; Sean Baker’s Red Rocket; Titane, the sophomore feature from Julia Ducournau, who directed Raw; and a couple of picks that haven’t been screaming from the Cannes headlines. Plus: JFK Revisited, which Oliver Stone teased on this very podcast about a month ago. 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. There are only a few days left in the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, but there are still plenty of excellent films left to tak about. So my job here is not done, and joining me today is the critic Carlos Valladares. We’ll talk about the unusual new film Cow, from Andrea Arnold, perhaps best known for American Honey and Red Road as well as work for television. We’ll also hear about the Spanish film Libertad, a sharp Croatian coming-of-age drama called Murina, and a collective film called Futura, which is co-created by Pietro Marcello, Alice Rohrwacher, and Francesco Munzi. Finally Carlos celebrates his favorite film of the festival, the Hamaguchi film, Drive My Car, which you’ll be able to read all about in his dispatch for the Gagosian Quarterly. 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. Today we're talking with Justin Chang, film critic at The Los Angeles Times, about more movies from the Cannes Film Festival. We talked about Blue Bayou, a drama from Justin Chon; Stillwater, starring Matt Damon, from the director of Spotlight; the mysterious Mia Hansen Love movie, Bergman Island; and Kogonada’s new science fiction film, After Yang, with Colin Farrell. I talked with Justin at the last edition of Cannes in 2019 and it was a pleasure to pick right back up. Be sure to check the Los Angeles Times for his latest write-ups. 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. Today from the Cannes film festival, we hear about the much anticipated film from director Paul Verhoeven: Benedetta, about a young nun whose sexual awakening causes a stir in her convent. My correspondent this time is the critic and programmer Jordan Cronk, whose work is published in many publications including Cinema Scope, Reverse Shot, and MUBI Notebook. Jordan also tells us about the vibrant film Ahed’s Knee, from Israeli auteur Nadav Lapid; The Worst Person in the World, from Joachim Trier; and the latest directorial effort from Sean Penn, Flag Day. And finally we hear about some highlights from other film selections at Cannes. 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