In which I return from Cannes with much chat about films for your enjoyment

Plus, catching up with Amy Taubin, and shameless harangues about subscriptions!

Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,

I fear I have been a bit of a stranger, but now I return bearing gifts. For what feels like the past year, I’ve been watching movies and recording podcasts at the Cannes film festival. So I have plenty to share with you—just a selection for now while I catch up on things like sleeping and eating.

We’ll start with a few episodes on Cannes highlights with the delightful Mark Asch, my ol’ pal from the days when alt-weeklies roamed the Earth; Jon Dieringer, MVP mastermind of the essential Screen Slate; and Jessica Kiang, enviably eloquent star critic on the festival front lines and Belfast FF programmer.

I will put together a complete round-up of Cannes episodes in one post for convenience’s sake—but that might be supporter-only? Traveling and lodging in Cannes ain’t cheap...

So if you’ve listened to any of the podcasts, I encourage you to subscribe and join the supporters who make The Last Thing I Saw possible.

Sincerely,

Nic

THE PODCAST

Jon Dieringer on Cannes: The Zone of Interest, Wang Bing’s Youth, Steve McQueen’s Occupied City, Killers of the Flower Moon

Mark Asch on Cannes: Asteroid City, Gondry’s Book of Solutions, Club Zero

Jessica Kiang on Cannes: Four Daughters, La Chimera, Banel & Adama, Only the River Flows

Amy Taubin on her Carte Blanche series at MoMA (Warhol's Batman Dracula, Soderbergh’s High Flying Bird, Joie Lee’s films, more) + Dead Ringers (TV) + Elephant

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 WORK

For Sight & Sound, I reviewed a couple of films out of Cannes (so far): Jonathan Glazer’s infamous The Zone of Interest and Jessica Hausner’s diet cult oddity Club Zero.

For Filmmaker, I interviewed Steve McQueen, director of 12 Years a Slave, about his massive WWII/Holocaust chronicle at Cannes: Occupied City, a look at Amsterdam during the war, site by site. I also interviewed Rodrigo Moreno, director of the quite delightful bank heist yarn The Delinquents.

For The New York Times, I reviewed and picked a movie that premiered at Cannes last year and recently hit U.S. cinemas: The Night of the 12th.

And a bit earlier... I was fortunate to have the chance to talk with Amy Taubin for Air Mail about her incredible life and work.

THIS CRITIC’S PICKS

Delectable selections for home viewing.

Parasite (HBO MAX)

Miami Blues (Criterion) – I programmed this one back in the day - fun

Paper Moon (HBO MAX)

Synecdoche, New York (Criterion) – I presented this at the Roxy with Charlie Kaufman in person, and now you can enjoy it in the comfort of your home (though I think it’s better on the big screen)

Winchester 73 (Criterion)

Blue Ruin (MUBI)

Quitting Time – Delightful short programmed by Amy Taubin in her Carte Blanche series at the Museum of Modern Art

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 reports, and reviews are published in The New York Times, Screen Slate, Sight & Sound, Filmmaker, Air Mail, 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 past programming, drop me a line.

On the editorial side, I worked as editor-in-chief of Film Comment magazine, where I was in editorial for 15 years in all. There 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 (an honor historically given 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