New Episodes of The Last Thing I Saw, featuring filmmakers and critics
An interview with acclaimed director Janicza Bravo about ZOLA, and talented critics talking about movies that in most cases are quite good indeed!
It’s been a busy couple of weeks over at the podcast fun factory fondly and accurately known as The Last Thing I Saw. I interviewed the filmmaker Janicza Bravo about her dazzling and funny new film Zola (now in theaters), an antic and increasingly hellish journey. I also interviewed the directors of The Beta Test, a fearless and funny comedy about Hollywood agents, from Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe, and spoke more with ol’ pal Bruce Bennett about a lost Japanese should-be classic and a 70s espionage curio set in Italy. And most recently, I caught up with new releases including In the Heights and other goodies (George Romero’s Amusement Park) with critic Beatrice Loayza.
Cannes is around the corner and if you want to hear more about good movies, sign up for The Last Thing I Saw’s monthly subscription. There are many wonderful things coming up! I tell you, it’s something to behold.
Thank you to all of the supporters of the podcast—a regular space for the spirited discussion of movies and the unnerving glare of 1970s-era Bruce Dern.
NEW PODCAST NOTES
Episode 49: In the Heights, Inside, The Driver, Tribeca, Amusement Park with Beatrice Loayza
You can also listen to this episode on iTunes.
This episode features picks from the Tribeca Film Festival! Exciting.
Beatrice Loayza contributes to The New York Times, Cinema Scope, Reverse Shot, and other publications, and is associate editor at the Criterion Collection.
Episode 48: Janicza Bravo interview (Zola)
You can also listen to this episode on iTunes.
Janicza Bravo’s long-awaited Zola is in theaters now.
Episode 47: Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe on The Beta Test + Bruce Bennett on Zero Focus and The ‘Human’ Factor
You can also listen to this episode on iTunes.
Films discussed include: The Beta Test, The Conjuring 3, Zero Focus, and The ‘Human’ Factor.
Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe’s The Beta Test played in the Tribeca Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival. It will be released this fall by IFC Films.
Bruce Bennett is a scriptwriter, story producer, musician, and as a critic published widely in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Sun, and elsewhere.
For more information on the podcast’s opening music by The Minarets (gratefully used with permission):
Follow the band on Instagram:
@theminaretsmusic
www.facebook.com/TheMinaretsMusic
twitter.com/MinaretsMusic
MY RECENT WRITING
For The New York Times, I wrote a feature about the love story I Carry You With Me from director Heidi Ewing and how it was made using hybrid filmmaking. It mixes a fictionalized story with documentary footage of its subjects, a couple who are New York restaurateurs born in Mexico and undocumented.
For Sloan Science & Film, I interviewed the director of Fathom, a documentary about two scientists studying whale calls as a form of sonic culture.
THIS CRITIC’S PICKS
Delectable selections for home viewing.
Distant Voices, Still Lives (MUBI)
THE END
Here I may end with a song.
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 won the Film Heritage Award, chosen by the National Society of Film Critics (an honor historically awarded to the Museum of Modern Art and other institutions).
My features, interviews, festival dispatches, 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.
As always, feel free to contact me re: writing, editing, moderating, podcasting, etc.
nicolas.rapold@gmail.com