Catherine Breillat interview + NYT Critic's Notebook + New picks on streaming + I guest-star on a pod
Meantime goodies until the next lovely episode of The Last Thing I Saw
Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,
Rest assured I’m still at work on the next podcast, coming soon-ish. Besides weathering recent current events, I’ve been a little busy with book research and other things which I’ll share about eventually. So this is mainly a writing catch-up mailing but I’m proud of a couple of recent pieces.
And in lieu of dropping a new episode, I’m reviving a favorite recent interview (the title just leapt to mind) and sharing a podcast where I was a guest for a change. Hosting is hard work, what with making pigs-in-a-blanket and moderating cutthroat games of Win Lose or Draw.
Thank you to all the supporters of The Last Thing I Saw!
Gratefully,
Nic
THE PODCAST
This week’s a throwback, though not too far back.
Radu Jude on Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Episodes of The Last Thing I Saw are also available at many other podcast places.
RECENT WORK
For The New York Times, I wrote a Critic’s Notebook about Fahrenheit 9/11 twenty years after its release during the 2004 election year. I filed this piece almost a month ago so this was written before the insane past week...
Last Summer is one of the best films of the year and by happy coincidence I have a couple of pieces on it: a full review at The Los Angeles Times, where I call Léa Drucker’s performance Oscar-worthy, and then my interview with Catherine Breillat from the New York Film Festival, which Filmmaker has published. I still remember watching all of Breillat’s movies as a baby critic and being completely bowled over, so this was special.
I’m always happy to contribute to The Financial Times and this time I was a guest on their culture podcast for an episode about Kinds of Kindness. Really fun digging into what director Yorgos Lanthimos and company are up to in this one.
THIS CRITIC’S PICKS
The Strange Case of Angelica (Metrograph) A late masterpiece from Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira
A Well Spent Life (Criterion) Mance Lipscomb by Les Blank
This Closeness (MUBI) The latest from Kit Zauhar, director of Actual People
Q (Criterion) I wrote about this nimbly directed personal documentary when it premiered in Tribeca in 2023 and I’m glad to see it available now. It’s about director Jude Chehab’s mother and how she coped with her experience in a religious organization
Passion (MUBI) You know that Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s debut feature is right here for you to watch, right?
The World’s Greatest Sinner (Criterion) Timothy Carey directs Timothy Carey. Wrote it up for The New York Times last fall
Boyhood (MUBI) Lifetimes by Linklater
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, editor, and programmer. 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.