Los Angeles Repertory Highlights + Writers Strike Chat
Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,
This week’s episode features recent highlights from Los Angeles repertory, with the help of a local superfan (and veteran podcaster) who also shares thoughts related to the writers strike.
In a weird fluke of timing, we talked about a number of Soviet-era filmmakers (and one post-Soviet maverick), but that was well before this weekend’s chaos in Russia. Also included: rare Monte Hellman, and Mary Bronstein’s Yeast starring Bronstein, Greta Gerwig, and other folks you might recognize.
Next week’s episode is already in the works and I can’t wait to share it, so stay tuned. Thank you to all of the supporters of The Last Thing I Saw!
Sincerely,
Nic
THE PODCAST
Peter Labuza on films by Alexander Sokurov, Larisa Shepitko, Elem Klimov + Monte Hellman’s Iguana + Writers Strike Chat + Mary Bronstein’s Yeast (Ep. 188)
This week’s episode returns to Los Angeles repertory (American Cinematheque and Mezzanine). We discussed two infrequently screened 1990s films by Alexander Sokurov; the formidable war-movie pairing of Larisa Shepitko’s The Ascent and Elem Klimov’s Come and See; and a Monte Hellman rarity, Iguana. Guest Peter Labuza also offers personal thoughts related to the writers strike and streaming. Labuza is researcher at IATSE Local 600 (the International Cinematographers Guild) and a scholar in media industries law, as well as a past podcaster for many years. Also: Yeast.
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 The New York Times, I wrote up the touring program of shorts from Sundance 2023. Definitely had my favorites among them (one pictured above), and was able to take some space to explain which.
Since Pacifiction is one of my streaming picks this week, here’s my interview with its ever-entertaining director Albert Serra from last fall.
THIS CRITIC’S PICKS
The Heroic Trio (Criterion) Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, and Anita Mui!
Two Ships (MUBI) Palme d’Or winner Justine Triet’s 2012 short
No Bears (Criterion) I said No Bears! Jafar Panahi’s latest
Pacifiction (MUBI) See above
Workingman’s Death (Metrograph) Michael Glawogger’s dazzling, colorful documentary, which I wrote about for the New York Times before the filmmaker sadly passed away young: the film presents “a heady travelogue of elemental manual labor in Ukraine (coal fields), Indonesia (sulfur pits), Nigeria (that abattoir), Pakistan (gargantuan ship salvage) and China (steelworks).”
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.
Feel free to get in touch re: writing, editing, moderating, programming, podcasting, etc.
nicolas.rapold@gmail.com