Berlin Calling + Synecdoche Screening + What Is Naatu?
The latest and greatest from the Berlin film festival + Screening Alert!
Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,
I know what you’re thinking: what’s that podcasting fool doing in Berlin? There was a festival, you see—the Berlinale. I went, I watched movies, I talked about them, and I came back. The glamour is simply overpowering!
You can start in on these podcasts below, where I had the good fortune of talking with very fine critics also covering the festival. Lots to movies choose from: the latest from Philippe Garrel, Nicolas Philibert (of To Be and to Have), and Dustin Guy Defa; a portrait of Scots filmmaker Margaret Tait; and the rather incredible spectacle of Sean Penn meeting with Ukraine President Zelensky in a documentary.
Last but not least, a quick screening invitation: come join me at the latest New Essentials screening at the Roxy Cinema in New York: Charlie Kaufman’s rarely shown Synecdoche, New York! The movie is bizarre and funny and sneakily moving, and the cast is amazing: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Dianne Wiest, Tom Noonan, Hope Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh. Some words here about it.
That’s all for now. Thank you to all my wonderful supporters for making the podcast possible!
Yours,
Nic
THE PODCAST
Berlin #1 with Giovanni Marchini Camia: Defa’s The Adults, Manodrome, Being in a Place: A Portrait of Margaret Tait, Orlando, My Political Biography
Berlin #2 with Jordan Cronk: Garrel’s The Plough, Tótem, Here, Disco Boy, Melting Ink
Berlin #3 with Jonathan Romney: Schanelec’s Music, Limbo, On the Adamant, Superpower
Episodes of The Last Thing I Saw are also available at other podcast places such as Spotify.
For more information on the podcast’s opening and closing music by The Minarets (gratefully used with permission), follow the band on Instagram:
@theminaretsmusic
RECENT WRITING
For The New York Times, I had a wonderful time talking with the musical minds behind “Naatu Naatu,” the Oscar-nominated song from the Tollywood hit RRR: the composer, the lyricist, and the choreographer. It’s a fun, rampaging dance number in the film, and full of little jokes along the way.
Also for the Times, I reviewed the outstanding documentary A House Made of Splinters, about a temporary home for children in Eastern Ukraine. Shot before the war, it’s a fear of sensitivity nonfiction filmmaking, directed and shot by Simon Lereng Wilmont. Critic’s Pick!
And for Filmmaker magazine, I interviewed the irrepressible Albert Serra about his latest, Polynesia-set film, Pacifiction, which opened recently. About a decade ago, I wrote the Times review of his film Story of My Death, a movie that somehow combines Casanova’s memoir with Dracula.
THIS CRITIC’S PICKS
Delectable selections for home viewing.
EO (Criterion) + supplemental materials: 60 seconds of a Twitterfarmer’s donkeys eating carrots
Jackals and Fireflies (YouTube) a new short by Charlie Kaufman
Party Girl (Criterion) Parker Posey. I remember liking this all right?
Wattstax (HBO MAX) 50th anniversary of the landmark concert film
Honey Land (HBO MAX)
Phantom Lady (Criterion)
THE END
Here I may end with a song.
ABOUT ME
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw! I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold.
Besides hosting the podcast, I’m a writer and an editor. My features, interviews, festival dispatches, and reviews are published in The New York Times, Screen Slate, Sight & Sound, Artforum, Filmmaker, and W Magazine (and have appeared in dearly departed publications such as The Village Voice, Stop Smiling, The New York Sun, and The L Magazine). Why, I’ve even programmed quite a bit!
On the editorial side, I worked as editor-in-chief of Film Comment, where I was for 15 years. There I assigned and edited both web and print, hosted The Film Comment Podcast and Talks and screenings, curated Film Comment Selects, learned from brilliant writers, and wrote a lot, including interviews with Spike Lee, Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Pedro Costa, and Frederick Wiseman. Film Comment was subsequently awarded the Film Heritage Award by the National Society of Film Critics (an honor historically awarded to the Museum of Modern Art and other institutions).
Feel free to get in touch re: writing, editing, moderating, programming, podcasting, etc.
nicolas.rapold@gmail.com