Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. One of my favorite debuts in a while is El Planeta, directed by and starring Amalia Ulman. She plays a designer who lives with her mother (played by Ulman’s mother) but they’re both going broke. So they’re making ends meet any way they can, which for her mother might include a little light scamming. It’s a movie with many layers, both funny and poignant, about keeping up appearances and about the complicated bond between mother and daughter. In many ways it builds on Ulman’s extensive art practice, which plays with class, identity, fashion, and how we have to present and re-present ourselves to the world. Ulman was raised in Gijón, Spain, where the movie is set, and she's based in New York. I already had the pleasure of interviewing Ulman at length for Screen Slate, and so this time I was able to spend more time than usual talking about the wonderful movies she’s been watching. But first our Zoom conversation was interrupted by a surprise guest...

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Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. This episode I’m back with highlights from not one but two festivals: The Toronto Film Festival, and the Camden festival, which specializes in documentary. I’m joined by my fearless correspondent Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image. This is another episode where you the listeners can support the production of The Last Thing I Saw. I invite you to show your support and get immediate access. You can do so by going to

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Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. As promised, this is another episode about notable movies from the Toronto Film Festival, with critic Amy Taubin. It’s also another episode where you the listeners can support the podcast. I’ve recorded over 75 episodes with leading critics and filmmakers. It’s all created with love and care on a weekly basis and sometimes daily, at home and at festivals. The new episode with Amy Taubin is available now to paid subscribers of my substack. So I invite you to show your support and get immediate access.

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Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. This is a special episode of the podcast for a couple of reasons. It introduces a series about notable premieres at the Toronto film festival -- highlights that you’ll want to know about. But it’s also a special episode because it’s a chance for you the listeners to support the podcast. The new episode about Toronto, with curator and critic Eric Hynes, will be followed by one with another beloved regular guest, Amy Taubin.

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Music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. Sometime in May or June, I had a marvelous conversation about the sky. Not just one sky, but 10 skies, in fact, with the critic Erika Balsom. Balsom wrote an insightful book about the lovely, thought-provoking landscape film 10 Skies, from filmmaker James Benning. I think I originally saw the movie at a festival in the late 2000s, and it was a pleasure to revisit. Happily I have a new occasion to make this conversation available, thanks to a screening of 10 Skies at the Open City Documentary Festival in London. But no matter the occasion, 10 Skies is a work that always rewards looking at from a number of angles, opening up questions about art and philosophy that keep shifting and turning in your head like the clouds above. Balsom’s book is available from Fireflies Press.

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Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Episode 74: Venice 6 – Reflection, Trenches, The Catholic School, Parallel Mothers with Jessica Kiang

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. My 2021 Venice Film Festival series of podcasts concludes (for now?) with critic Jessica Kiang, a contributor to Variety, The Playlist, and The New York Times. I talked with Jessica about the formally audacious film Reflection from Ukraine’s Valentyn Vasyanovych, with a shout-out to the conflict doc Trenches; a controversial Italian drama, The Catholic School; and one of her favorites of the festival, the life-giving Parallel Mothers.

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Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2021 Venice Film Festival series of podcasts continues with Variety critic Guy Lodge. I talked with Guy on the Lido about highlights from the festival, including Audrey Diwan's L'Evenement, Lorenzo Vigas’s La Caja (The Box), Ana Lily Amirpour’s Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, the abortion drama L’Evenement (Happening), and Madeleine Collins starring Virginia Efira.

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Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2021 Venice Film Festival series of podcasts continues with critic Christina Newland, whose work has been published in Sight & Sound, Vulture, and the Criterion Collection. I’d been holding on to the Jane Campion film, The Power of the Dog, for discussion, and here it is at last, along with our consideration of The Lost Daughter, the directorial debut of Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Paolo Sorrentino’s autobiographical film The Hand of God.

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Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2021 Venice Film Festival series of podcasts continues with a deluxe installment featuring Glenn Kenny, a New York Times and RogerEbert.com contributor. It’s Glenn’s first time on the podcast and he makes up for lost time with a feast of movies: Dune from Denis Villeneuve, Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers, Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter, The Cathedral (a sample selection from the Biennale-funded section), and documentary on an outré horror filmmaker, Inferno Rosso: Joe D’Amato on the Road of Excess.

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Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2021 Venice Film Festival is in full swing, and I sat down to chat with critic Jonathan Romney (The Observer, Screen Daily) about a few highlights: Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, starring Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Diana Rigg, and Terence Stamp; Pablo Larrain’s Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart; Michelangelo Frammartino’s Il Buco; and Official Competition (that’s the title) starring Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, and Oscar Martinez. Please note there might be a little Venice ambience occasionally audible in the background—think of it as the festival buzz.

You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at:

rapold.substack.com

Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets

Photo by Steve Snodgrass