First Anniversary Celebration + O. Stone Interview
The Last Thing I Saw special 1st-birthday offer + a conversation with Oliver Stone
This month marks the one-year anniversary of The Last Thing I Saw podcast—more on that later and my Special Offer. As it happens, this week I’m also posting my interview with Oliver Stone.
Speaking with Stone was a bit of a surreal experience, since he looms larger than life in some of my early moviegoing. I vividly remember sorting out the merits of films like JFK and Natural Born Killers, which preoccupied the culture in rare ways, even though many later treated Stone as part of a clash-of-generations moment that had passed. But the visual brio of his storytelling and the urgency of the original histories remain undiminished, as well as all the excesses that went with it. Our conversation was eye-opening as we turned toward the depiction of violence and history (and rest assured he does opine on the JFK assassination by the end). Trying to guide the interview was a bit like lassoing a freight train, and for more, you can read his memoir Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving ‘Platoon,’ ‘Midnight Express,’ ‘Scarface,’ ‘Salvador,’ and the Movie Game.
And now a birthday gift! I’m celebrating the podcast’s first anniversary with a special offer for loyal Last Thing I Saw listeners and readers, available by clicking below. If you’ve been “lurking” for a while, now is an excellent time to sign up, and nobody will be the wiser. There will be more interviews to come and conversations with my talented critic colleagues.
Thank you to all for supporting the podcast—a regular space for the spirited discussion of movies and more.
NEW PODCAST NOTES
Episode 45: Oliver Stone Interview
You can also listen to this episode on iTunes.
Oliver Stone is the Academy Award–winning writer-director of such movies as Platoon, JFK, Natural Born Killers, and The Doors, and screenwriter of Scarface. His book, Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game, is out in paperback.
For more information on the podcast’s opening music by The Minarets (gratefully used with permission):
Instagram: @theminaretsmusic
https://www.facebook.com/TheMinaretsMusic
https://soundcloud.com/theminaretsmusic
THIS CRITIC’S PICKS
Bad Day at Black Rock (Criterion)
Open Mic Solitaire (Media City Festival)
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (MUBI)
The Hand (dir. Oliver Stone) (Shout Factory)
THE END
“You just want to be on the side that’s winning.”
ABOUT ME
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, which Sight & Sound put in its Top Ten Film Podcasts.
I’m a writer and an editor. I’ve worked as the editor-in-chief of Film Comment, where I toiled for 15 years. I assigned and edited both web and print, hosted its podcast and talks and screenings, learned from brilliant writers, curated Film Comment Selects, and wrote a lot myself. 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). Besides Film Comment, my features, interviews, and reviews have been published in The New York Times, Artforum, Sight & Sound, and dearly departed publications such as The Village Voice, Stop Smiling, The New York Sun, and The L Magazine.
I miss milling about and chatting after movies, and so the natural response is to inflict a podcast on friends and strangers alike.
As always, feel free to contact me re: writing, editing, moderating, podcasting, etc.
nicolas.rapold@gmail.com