Monologues + Digital Wonderlands

A new article about long-take monologues, and a friendly chat with Mr. Mark Asch

Dear The Last Thing I Sawfolk,

Happy new year, where applicable! If not, I hope things get better soon. Here’s the latest from me: a new article on monologues and a new podcast episode.

For The New York Times, I wrote about a phenomenon I kept noticing over the past year of movies: long monologues shot in long takes. Very grateful for this opportunity to talk about some absolutely riveting scenes.

And on The Last Thing I Saw, I welcome back critic Mark Asch for a discussion of, well, quite a few movies, starting with Avatar 2, moving on to digital cinema generally, Nope, and beyond.

Thank you to all my supporters, who make the podcast possible!

Nic

THE PODCAST

Mark Asch on Avatar 2, Michael Mann, Nope, Casa Susanna, World Cup (Episode 154)

Mark Asch is a critic whose work has been published in Playlist, Inside Hook, Little White Lies, and other publications. He is the author of Close-Ups: New York Movies and was the film editor of the dearly departed L Magazine.

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 WRITING

Well, shoot, I already mentioned the New York Times piece above. So here’s something from the vaults: John Cassavetes as remembered by Seymour Cassel and Al Ruban. I interviewed them together for the Jazz issue of Stop Smiling, hence the opening salvo.

THIS CRITIC’S PICKS

Delectable selections for home viewing.

Grown-Ups (Criterion) Mike Leigh at the BBC

Set It Off (HBO MAX)

Four Nights of a Dreamer (Le Cinema Club) Rare Bresson

The Competition (Metrograph)

Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party (Night Flight Plus)

Imitation of Life (Criterion) John Stahl

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 dispatches, and reviews are published in The New York Times, Sight & Sound, Artforum, Filmmaker, and W Magazine (and have appeared in dearly departed publications such as The Village Voice, Stop Smiling, The New York Sun, and The L Magazine).

I worked as editor-in-chief of Film Comment, where I was for 15 years. There I assigned and edited both web and print editorial, hosted The Film Comment Podcast and Talks and screenings, curated Film Comment Selects, learned from brilliant writers, and wrote a lot, including interviews with Spike Lee, Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Pedro Costa, and Frederick Wiseman. 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).

Feel free to get in touch re: writing, editing, moderating, programming, podcasting, etc.

nicolas.rapold@gmail.com