The Last Thing I Saw

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week Genevieve Yue tells us about a film series she programmed at Metrograph called Implicit Movies. It's a fascinating selection of films, exploring a world of backgrounds, bit parts, and fragmented memories that lurk behind every image. Genevieve is an assistant professor of culture and media at the New School, and so we also...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. For this special episode I talk with director David Fincher and production designer Don Burt about Mank, a black-and-white evocation of Hollywood through the jaded eyes of one Herman J. Mankiewicz, as he writes the screenplay for Citizen Kane. If you’ve seen any Fincher films since Zodiac, you’ve also seen Burt's beautiful work, which...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. This week we begin with some films from the cult label Something Weird Video: the revenge drama Johnny Firecloud, and a couple of films from the one and only Doris Wishman. My adventurous guest is Adam Piron, Los Angeles-based programmer for the Sundance Film Festival where he's associate director of the indigenous program. Other movi...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. Critic Nick Pinkerton and cinematographer Sean Price Williams join this episode. Pinkerton’s new book on Tsai Mingliang’s wonderful film Goodbye Dragon Inn is available now from Fireflies Press. Sean Price Williams’s vibrant and dynamic work as a cinematographer includes the acclaimed movies Good Time, directed by Josh and Benny Safdi...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. For the final installment in our essential picks from the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, I’m joined by Berlin-based critic Jessica Kiang, who wrote about the festival for The New York Times and filed multiple reviews of highlights for Variety. Movies discussed include The Scary of 61st, from Red Scare podcast co-host Dasha Nekrasova; the...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. The one and only Amy Taubin joins to talk about a couple of selections from the Berlin Film Festival and Berlin Critics’ Week, with some comments on watching on the small screen. Movies discussed include Ballad of a White Cow, An Unusual Summer, Nous (We), and Petite Maman. You can support this podcast and read show notes with links a...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. Brazil-based critic Ela Bittencourt, who has been reviewing for MUBI, joins to discuss a selection of movies in the Berlin Film Festival, which presented its slate online in advance of its public summer incarnation. Movies discussed include The Girl and the Spider, Natural Light, Azor, Tsarenska Scaling, and the short Fury Is a Feelin...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. London calling! Critic Jonathan Romney weighs in on the best from the Berlin Film Festival, which presented its slate of films online in advance of a public summer incarnation. Movies discussed include the prize-winners Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn from Radu Jude, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Maria Speth’s Mr. B...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. We’re giving a sneak preview of the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, which presented its slate of films online this week (in advance of a public summer incarnation). Critic-programmer Jordan Cronk joins the episode to give a run-down on what’s new at Berlin and a selection of highlights including the latest from Hong Sangsoo and adve...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. We’re talking about new (or new-ish) releases this week, including Judas and the Black Messiah, The Father, I Care a Lot, and Saint Maud. Joining me for this episode are a supergroup of two regulars: critics Beatrice Loayza and Nicholas Russell. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substack.com Music...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This one's a wild journey with guest Carlos Valladares, a critic and Yale graduate scholar. Carlos is working on a project about the director Jerry Schatzberg, so our conversation starts with his films Scarecrow and Honeysuckle Rose. Then it’s off to the races: Alain Resnais’s Je t’Aime, Je t’Aime; Looney Tunes; the late Joan Micklin...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. The Rotterdam film festival provides a launching pad for cutting-edge cinema that often ends up screening in New Directors / New Films and other series. To discuss highlights from this year's edition -- including the prize-winning Indian film Pebbles and the eye-opening Dutch drama Feast -- I’m joined by Jordan Cronk, veteran critic a...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. As our week of Sundance comes to a close, Amy Taubin returns to discuss Judas and the Black Messiah, Bring Your Own Brigade, a discovery in the episodic series section, the Sparks documentary, and her reason for missing the Summer of Soul concerts in 1969. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substac...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. On this Sundance episode, critic Jessica Kiang (Variety, The Playlist) shares some of her recent favorites, including The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet, the Sparks documentary, and Sabaya. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substack.com Music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. On this episode about the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, I’m joined by critic Beatrice Loayza, a frequent guest on the show. Among the movies we discuss are Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth, 1980s throwback Censor, A Glitch in the Matrix (from the director of Room 237), and Amalia Ulman’s El Planeta. For complete show notes with links, sign...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. We’re back at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, this time talking with critics Nicholas Russell and Eric Hynes, who will both write about the festival at Reverse Shot. The discussion covers Eight for Silver, Passing, and the nuances of criticism and reception at festivals. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter a...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. On this episode we talk about highlights from the first days of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival with Eric Hynes, curator of film at Museum of the Moving Image. We discuss two stand-outs from this year’s edition—Summer of Soul, directed by Questlove, and President, directed by Camilla Nielsson—and a documentary about a Visconti star, T...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. On this episode we look at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival with the one and only Amy Taubin, who has been attending since the year of Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Taubin shares some of the movies and events she is looking forward to and reflects on what’s different about this pandemic-era edition of the festival. For...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. This is the 20th episode of the podcast, and we’ll be sharing our highlights from the year in movies. You might notice a few likely candidates are missing, such as First Cow or Time, but that’s because we tried to talk about movies that haven't been covered as much on this podcast, though a few old favorites do sneak in. It’s been a l...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. On this episode I’m tackling a wonderful collection of new films by director Steve McQueen called Small Axe. The five Small Axe movies are on Amazon, completed today with the release of the fifth and final film, Education. Small Axe is a fascinating and ambitious chronicle of West Indian experience in London—personal, political, and c...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. This week, I start with a featured look at Time, directed by Garrett Bradley. I talk with the wonderful Amy Taubin about the movie, which is one of the year’s best. On the second half of the episode, I look at a terrific collection of 1970s horror available at the Criterion Channel. Critics Beatrice Loayza and Christina Newland join m...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. This week, we’re trying something different. After our usual discussion of recently watched movies, I dig into a special topic with another guest. First I trade New York Film Festival highlights with critics Beatrice Loayza and Susannah Gruder. Then on the second half, I talk about the possible futures facing moviegoing and film exhib...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to folks to talk about what they've been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time is R. Emmet Sweeney, producer of DVDs and Blu-rays for Kino Lorber. Rob has had two projects lately: looking for good movies to watch with his daughter, and watching fantastical Indian genre movies. Titles discussed include: Wee W...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time are critics Eric Hynes (curator of film, Museum of the Moving Image), Jordan Cronk (founder, Acropolis Cinema), and Beatrice Loayza, talking about their highlights from the Toronto International Film Festival. The movies include:...

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we’ve been watching. It’s as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time are critics Amy Taubin and Michael Koresky. This time of year, our heads are usually full of brand-new movies from film festivals, which are a good way to preview fall releases as well as titles that might otherwise be hard to see...