The latest New Essentials screening! New episode of The Last Thing I Saw podcast!
New Essentials! The Last Thing I Saw! Hooray!
Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,
Two terrific pieces of news for this mailing. First, the latest episode of The Last Thing I Saw is up! I talked with critic Beatrice Loayza about the glorious genre of erotic thrillers, which are the subject of a new series on the Criterion Channel. Criterion’s selection spans the 1980s and 1990s, including lesser-known films such as Call Me and titles from Ken Russell and John Dahl. Loayza also talks a bit about a new release, Dry Ground Burning, and I offer a belated New Directors / New Films pick.
Next, I am proud to present the next screening of The New Essentials at the Roxy Cinema in New York: a 20th-anniversary screening of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant. One of the great films of the 2000s, it’s beautifully filmed in every way (a Steadicam landmark, for one thing) and assembled with an intelligence worthy of the material. See it for yourself—get your tickets here.
I conclude as always with a big thank-you to all the supporters who make The Last Thing I Saw possible! More to come, so go rope in some of your friends to sign up.
Sincerely,
Nic
THE PODCAST
Beatrice Loayza on Erotic Thrillers + Dry Ground Burning, plus an NDNF pick from me (Episode 171)
Beatrice Loayza is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn. She is a contributing film critic at The New York Times, and her work appears regularly in Artforum, 4Columns, Film Comment, the Nation, and other publications. Her article on erotic thrillers can be found here on the Criterion Collection’s editorial site, the Current.
RECENT WORK
For The New York Times, I reviewed the dystopian drama Plan 75, which imagines a government euthanasia program in Japan.
For W Magazine, I interviewed Ritu Arya, one of the stars of the entertaining action comedy Polite Society, opening this week.
And here again is the link to my latest New Essentials screening at the Roxy Cinema in New York: Elephant, directed by Gus Van Sant. 20th Anniversary Screening! It screens on 35mm on May 12, 13, and 14.
Finally, because the link was kaput last time, here’s my New York Times breakdown of the movie How to Blow Up a Pipeline. I talked with the filmmakers, including the cast, about the steps involved in telling a story about climate activists who embrace sabotage.
THIS CRITIC’S PICKS
Delectable selections for home viewing.
Rocco and His Brothers (Criterion)
Call Me (Criterion)
After Hours (HBO MAX)
Between the Lines (MUBI)
Petite Maman (Criterion)
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, Artforum, Filmmaker, 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 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 by 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