First-Person 90s Docs + New Films by Mike Leigh and Joshua Oppenheimer, and more

Toronto film festival highlights and a special series at the Museum of the Moving Image

Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,

New York in the fall means a whole raft of new repertory film series to see, now that I’m back on terra firma. That’s also the case with other seasons and cities but I needed an opening line. Anyway, I was particularly excited to see one at the Museum of the Moving Image, “First-Person 1990s Documentary.” I chatted with the co-programmers, Asha Phelps and Jeff Reichert (who was previously on the Reverse Shot anniversary episode), and happily babbled about my favorites.

I’m also sharing a conversation about new films from Mike Leigh and Joshua Oppenheimer, and more, conducted with Mark Asch on some chairs at the Toronto International Film Festival, where they screened.

Also, the return of the Bonus Track interview feature: this time it’s Lisandro Alonso, interviewed at Cannes about Eureka, which opened in New York this weekend.

Much thanks to all the supporters who make The Last Thing I Saw possible!

Autumnally yours,

Nic

THE PODCAST

First-Person 1990s Documentary at MOMI with Jeff Reichert and Asha Phelps

Toronto 2024: Mark Asch on The End, Hard Truths, Eden, Measures for a Funeral

“Personal Belongings: First-Person Documentary in the 1990s” screens September 20 through 29 at the Museum of the Moving Image.

In other repertory news, re-posting this because the link was broken: Acropolis Cinema is screening GIFT, a film by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, with a live score by Eiko Ishibashi, on September 28.

Episodes of The Last Thing I Saw are also available at many other podcast places.

RECENT WORK

For Sight & Sound, I reviewed a couple of movies out of Venice that will be on the radar (beep beep beep): The Room Next Door, directed by Pedro Almodóvar and starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, and Maria, directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Angelina Jolie.

And here are my two reports on Venice, featuring many movies you’ll soon see in theaters, some you might not but should know about, and others you’ll see... later. First up is a report for the mighty Screen Slate. And then a documentary-only roundup for Documentary Magazine.

For W Magazine, I was delighted to talk to director Lana Wilson about one of my favorites from Sundance and 2024 generally, Look Into My Eyes, about New York psychics.

And finally, behind a paywall but here are my reports on the Toronto International Film Festival for The Financial Times.

THIS CRITIC’S PICKS

The Boy and the Heron (MAX) Yup

My Cousin Vinny (Criterion) How am I not going to put this when it’s on the Criterion Channel alongside like L’Avventura

Youth (Spring) (OVID) Lively Wang Bing portrait of young migrant workers

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Criterion) Mikio Naruse melodrama

Back Street (Criterion) John Stahl melodrama

BONUS TRACK

Eureka, the latest film from Argentine director Lisandro Alonso (Jauja, Libertad), opened this weekend. Its three parts take place in a cinematic wild West, on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, and in the jungles of Brazil. I spoke with Alonso at Cannes where Eureka premiered in May 2023. Here are a couple of excerpts.—Nicolas Rapold

Which story did you start with in thinking about the movie?

I think I started with Pine Ridge. They were not made in a logical order in my mind, but I'm not a logical guy, you know, and I don't like logical films.

Eureka returns to a recurring image in your films: someone struggling through a forest or jungle, hacking away. What is it about that image for you?

Struggling against the world... [chuckles] I think it's the way we are. For me especially as an Argentinian guy, nowadays and ever since I was born, it’s economically chaotic. It's impossible to believe in or to predict our future. I mean, the world is worried about 6% inflation, and we have 100%. So I think I enjoy more to just get out of these problems that you can feel and breathe every day in the city where I live. When I was a kid, my parents took me out of Buenos Aires on weekends because we had fun, and I think I just stay in that place. I like to see trees and the sky and forget about having my wallet all the time in my back pocket.

Lisandro Alonso will next direct La libertad doble, a sequel to his debut feature La libertad, follows Misael “who, some 25 years later, continues to live alone, wielding his axe to fell trees deep in the forest, far from the presence of others.”

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, programming, moderating, 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. (Dearly departed publications include The Village Voice, Stop Smiling, The New York Sun, and The L Magazine.) I’m also proud of the series and one-offs I’ve programmed, both revivals and premieres, so do drop me a line if you’d like to collaborate.

Editor-ially speaking, 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.