A conversation with the delightful Radu Jude, and new retrospective and doc highlights!
The director of the acclaimed Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World on The Last Thing I Saw!
Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,
As March wends its way to a close, America has been seized with Radu fever, thanks to the release of Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World. I was lucky enough to speak with Radu Jude, the Romanian auteur who, IMHO, made a movie that captures the current moment as few recent films have. The results are available for all to hear on The Last Thing I Saw.
I’m also sharing a couple of other new episodes that were lots of fun to record, starting with a chat with Christine Smallwood about Chantal Akerman’s La Captive, which she wrote about and which I find mesmerizing. And I welcomed back K.J. Relth-Miller of the Academy Museum for a chat about retrospective highlights from the Berlin film festival.
All that and the latest batch of writing, including lovely insights from Tsai Ming-liang and my delightful trip to Copenhagen’s own CPH:DOX.
Thank you to all the supporters who make The Last Thing I Saw possible!
Nic
THE PODCAST
Radu Jude on Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Radu Jude is the director of the highly acclaimed film Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World, which was just released and which I reviewed last fall for Sight & Sound. He also directed Aferim!, Bad Lucky Banging or Loony Porn, and I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians. A man who knows his way around a title.
Christine Smallwood on Chantal Akerman and La Captive
Christine Smallwood is the author of the novel The Life of the Mind and a contributor to publications such as The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, Bookforum, and The New York Times Magazine. Her new book on Chantal Akerman’s La Captive is available from Fireflies Press. And here’s where you can watch La Captive.
K.J. Relth-Miller on Lubitsch, Helke Sander, Carlos Saura, and more from Berlin restorations and revivals
K.J. Relth-Miller programs at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles and teaches at CalArts.
Episodes of The Last Thing I Saw are also available at many other podcast places.
THIS CRITIC’S PICKS
Streaming selections
The Swimmer (Criterion) Burt Lancaster in a strange, great movie, from Frank and Eleanor Perry
Anselm (Criterion) Wim Wenders’s other, eye-opening film from this year—making for one of the strangest double releases from a director in some time
Poor Things (Hulu)
The Settlers (MUBI)
Strange Victory (Criterion)
RECENT WORK
Things I wrote.
Tsai Ming-liang is a director who has meant a lot to me over the years, and so it was a great honor to write this feature about his latest work in his Walker series, Abiding Nowhere, for the mighty Screen Slate.
I was really happy to get out to CPH:DOX, the documentary showcase in Copenhagen, and found many movies to shout to the heavens, and to Filmmaker magazine, about. Here’s my report.
For my latest review in The New York Times, I took a look at Irish Wish, starring Lindsay Lohan in another what-if role.
THE END
Here I may end with a song.
ABOUT ME
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw! I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. Feel free to get in touch re: writing, editing, moderating, programming, podcasting, etc. by writing me at nicolas.rapold[at]gmail.com
Besides hosting the podcast, I’m a writer and an editor. My features, interviews, festival reports, and reviews are published in The New York Times, Screen Slate, Sight & Sound, Filmmaker, Air Mail, The Los Angeles Times, and W Magazine. (Plus dearly departed publications such as The Village Voice, Stop Smiling, The New York Sun, and The L Magazine.) For notes on my superfun programming experience, drop me a line.
On the editorial side, I worked as editor-in-chief of Film Comment magazine, where I was for 15 years in all. I assigned and edited both web and print, hosted The Film Comment Podcast and Talks, curated and hosted Film Comment Selects screenings, learned from brilliant writers, and wrote a lot, including interviews with Spike Lee, Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Pedro Costa, and Frederick Wiseman. Film Comment received the Film Heritage Award from the National Society of Film Critics.