Ep. 270: First-Person 1990s Documentary at MOMI with Jeff Reichert and Asha Phelps

Ep. 275: Rumours Directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson Talk About Movies Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week sees the release of Rumours, the new movie from Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson. It's about a remote gathering of world leaders (played by Cate Blanchett and Roy Dupuis among others) who face a looming crisis and encounter a giant brain in a forest -- for starters. During the New York Film Festival, I jumped at the chance to chat with the filmmakers about movies. The conversation had two parts: movies related to Rumours in some way, and then (taps sign) the last things each filmmaker had seen, whether in a cinema or at home. Their wide-ranging answers were an absolute delight, which I won’t spoil here! Rumours opens on October 18, including screenings at IFC Center moderated by executive producer Ari Aster and Owen Kline. Through Oct. 17, IFC Center is also showing a Guy Maddin retrospective including Careful, Brand Upon the Brain!, Tales from the Gimli Hospital, My Winnipeg, The Forbidden Room, and more. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 274: Alissa Wilkinson on NYFF: Suburban Fury, My Undesirable Friends, Wang Bing, 7 Walks with Mark Brown, Nickel Boys Redux Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. In the concluding week of the 62nd New York Film Festival, I sat down with Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times to hear her thoughts on a few titles. Two were world premieres: Suburban Fury (directed by Robinson Devor) and My Undesirable Friends: Part 1—Last Air in Moscow (Julia Loktev). The other titles include Wang Bing’s Youth Trilogy (Spring, Hard Times, and Homecoming), 7 Walks with Mark Brown (Vincent Barré, Pierre Creton), and Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 273: Amy Taubin on NYFF: Nickel Boys, My Undesirable Friends, New Godard and Albert Serra, No Other Land, Rumours Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the New York Film Festival presents a kind of best-of-the-year selection for its 62nd edition, I sat down with the one and only Amy Taubin to discuss a few highlights. Titles discussed include: Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’s extraordinary debut fiction feature which we had just seen on opening night; Jean-Luc Godard’s Scénarios and Exposé du Film annonce du film “Scénario”; It’s Not Me (Leos Carax); My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow (Julia Loktev), a world premiere; No Other Land (Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor); Union (Brett Story, Stephen Maing); Dahomey (Mati Diop); All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia); Rumours (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson); and Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 272: Christian Lorentzen on Pavements (and Pavement) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week the movie Pavements (and the band Pavement) came to The New York Film Festival. So I sat down after a Lincoln Center screening with critic Christian Lorentzen of the London Review of Books among many publications, to get his initial impressions on the hybrid documentary from director Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell, Listen Up Philip). Lorentzen talks about the band’s past and present (and future?), recalls attending the Pavement musical excerpted in the film, quotes the late Fredric Jameson, and ponders how earnestness and great poets fit into what the band is up to. Keep up with the latest from Christian Lorentzen at christianlorentzen.substack.com. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 271: Eric Hynes on Conclave, Friendship, Tata, The Last Republican, Winter in Sokcho (Toronto) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. So it turns out I had another Toronto International Film Festival episode up my sleeve, with Eric Hynes, Curator of Film at Museum of the Moving Image. We talk about the Ralph Fiennes elect-a-pope movie, Conclave (directed by Edward Berger); the Tim Robinson comedy, Friendship (directed by Andrew DeYoung); an intriguing pair of documentaries, Tata (directed by Lina Vdovîi and Radu Ciorniciuc) and The Last Republican (Steve Pink); and Platform selection Winter in Sokcho (Koya Kamura). Last but not least, we take another look at Joshua Oppenheimer’s The End. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 270: First-Person 1990s Documentary at MOMI with Jeff Reichert and Asha Phelps: Personal Belongings and Beyond Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The documentary work that bloomed in the 1990s, partly thanks to new technologies, has a raw immediacy that’s a pleasure to re-encounter on the big screen. Thanks to a new series starting this weekend at the Museum of the Moving Image, you can, and I sat down with the co-programmers, Jeff Reichert and Asha Phelps, about the series and its sampling of candid, complicated stories (with almost comically understated titles). Films discussed include: Personal Belongings (directed by Steven Bognar), Papapapá (Alex Rivera), The Tourist (Robb Moss), Vintage: Families of Value (Thomas Allen Harris), Finding Christa (Camille Billops and James Hatch), Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern (Jeanne Jordan and Steven Ascher), Family Gathering (Lise Yasui), and Moment of Impact, from Julia Loktev, whose latest, My Undesirable Friends, is premiering in the New York Film Festival. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 269: Toronto 2024: Mark Asch on The End, Hard Truths, Eden, Measures for a Funeral Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The fall is always packed with movies entering the world for the first time, and the Toronto International Film Festival brings together a sprawling slate of such premieres—some opening later in the fall, some looking for distributors. As I have for several years, I went to Toronto and chatted with fellow critic Mark Asch, who used to edit me years ago at The L Magazine. Titles discussed include: The End (Joshua Oppenheimer), with Michael Shannon, Tilda Swinton, George MacKay; Hard Truths (Mike Leigh), with Marianne Jean-Baptiste; Eden (Ron Howard) with Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney; and Measures for a Funeral (Sofia Bohdanowicz) with Deragh Campbell. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 268: Venice 2024: Jessica Kiang on April, Queer, Vermiglio, Happyend, 2073 Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 81st Venice Film Festival had a few more important films up its sleeve in its final days, and I was very happy to sit down in Venice with Jessica Kiang of Variety for a chat. Titles discussed include: April (directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili), Queer (Luca Guadagnino), Vermiglio (Maura Delpero), Happyend (Neo Sora), and 2073 (Asif Kapadia). This episode was recorded before the awards, where the honors included the Grand Jury Prize for Vermiglio and the Special Jury Prize for April. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 267: Venice 2024: Edo Choi on Pavements, Familiar Touch, Mistress Dispeller, Israel Palestine doc, plus Joker 2 Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 81st Venice Film Festival is underway, and I’m podcasting from the Lido about the latest movies to screen. This time I chatted with Edo Choi of the Museum of the Moving Image who is writing up a couple of films for Reverse Shot. Titles discussed include: Pavements (directed by Alex Ross Perry), Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland), Mistress Dispeller (Elizabeth Lo), Israel Palestine on Swedish TV (1958-1989) (Göran Hugo Olsson), and, before we had to run off, a smidgen from me on Joker: Folie à Deux (Todd Phillips). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 266: Venice 2024: Guy Lodge on Harvest, Babygirl Redux, Peacock, Diciannove (Nineteen) Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 81st Venice Film Festival is underway, and I’m podcasting from the Lido about the latest movies to screen. This time I chatted with critic Guy Lodge of Variety about a number of titles including Harvest (directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari), Diciannove (Giovanni Tortorici), Peacock (Bernhard Wenger), and one more time, Babygirl (Halina Reijn), starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass