The Complete Venice Film Festival Podcasts + Invite to New Screening Series!

I talk about Venice, and I introduce movies! What's not to like?

Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,

This week I bring glad tidings on two fronts. First, Venice: I have now gathered all the podcasts from my trip to the Venice Film Festival into one place. That place, dear reader, is here! You can listen to my chats about White Noise, The Whale, Saint Omer, and other Big Upcoming Movies, at your leisure. (Note: these episodes are now back on Apple Podcasts, if you were having any trouble finding them last week—a snafu on their end.)

Second, I’m introducing a screening series at the Roxy Cinema! It’s called New Essentials and it’s a marvelous chance to see fine films from the 2000s on the big screen. I’m delighted to start on Friday with Morvern Callar, directed by Lynne Ramsay and starring a mesmerizing Samantha Morton, in a story roughly described as “What if you walked away from your life.” Plus: the soundtrack features Can. Many thanks to the Roxy Cinema for showing these movies! Come see them all.

That’s all for now. Thank you to all the invaluable supporters who make the production of The Last Thing I Saw possible!

Your faithful host,

Nic

THE PODCAST

Venice #1: Tar, White Noise, Bardo with Jonathan Romney

Venice #2: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, The Banshees of Inisherin, Saint Omer, Don’t Worry Darling, with Jessica Kiang

Venice #3: The Whale, The Eternal Daughter, Lav Diaz’s When the Waves Are Gone, Other People’s Children, with Guy Lodge

Venice #4: Master Gardener, Dead for a Dollar, A Couple, Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America, with Glenn Kenny

Venice #5: Blonde, Athena, Beyond the Wall, The Happiest Man in the World, Casa Susanna, with Jonathan Romney

These episodes are also available on Spotify, Soundcloud, and other podcast places.

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

First, don’t forget to come out to Morvern Callar at the Roxy Cinema on Friday! I’ll be introducing the film to kick off a little series called New Essentials.

Ever since I learned that Paul W.S. Anderson, the director of Resident Evil, and Milla Jovovich, the star of that and many of Anderson’s later movies, were married, I thought it would be interesting to interview them. So I did, for The New York Times.

For Sight & Sound, I wrote up the new Frederick Wiseman film, Un Couple, based on the diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, whose husband wrote some cool novels.

For Artforum, I filed a report about the highlights of this year’s Venice film festival.

And for W Magazine, I interviewed Alice Diop, the brilliant director of Saint Omer, which won two prizes at Venice.

THIS CRITIC’S PICKS

Delectable selections for home viewing.

The Outfit (HBO MAX)

The Mouth Agape (MUBI)

La Piscine (Criterion)

2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (Criterion) R.I.P. Godard. Too much to process, so much to watch again

Death in Venice (Criterion)

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (HBO MAX)

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 a 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 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. I assigned and edited both web and print editorial, hosted its podcast and talks and screenings, learned from brilliant writers, curated Film Comment Selects, and wrote a lot, including interviews with Spike Lee, Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, 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