New York Movie Crews + The Mocapping of The Misconceived + Amy Taubin Redux

Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,

The latest episode of the podcast delves into the history of movie crews in New York, as told through hundreds of interviews by Michael Lee Nirenberg. His new book, Cinematic Immunity, is storehouse of lore, ranging from The French Connection to Do the Right Thing to Wolfen to Peewee’s Playhouse.

Michael (who also works as a scenic artist) was a lot of fun to chat with, and in a way his episode makes a fascinating pairing with my interview with James N. Kienitz Wilkins. His film, The Misconceived, employs a game engine and motion capture to tell its story of two classmates crossing paths after many years. It’s a funny, visually fascinating, and pungently sharp movie which recently opened First Look at the Museum of the Moving Image and is coming to Anthology Film Archives.

I’m also sharing my most recent conversation with Amy Taubin, where we talked about The Christophers, the latest from Steven Soderbergh... whom I also interviewed for BOMB Magazine. It’s all connected and there is order in the universe somewhere!

Thank you to all the supporters of The Last Thing I Saw,

Nic

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Some writing I did.

My latest reviews for The New York Times were the brain-busting pairing of Hamlet, a dynamic new adaptation starring Riz Ahmed, and Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.

For BOMB, I had a wonderful time talking to Steven Soderbergh about The Christophers, his new movie starring Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel as painters entangled in intrigue, and about his process generally.

Some streaming ideas.

Gone in 60 Seconds (Criterion) The 1974 original model

Sound of Falling (MUBI) A Cannes sensation last year

Lumière, le cinéma! (Criterion) I wrote about this and the Lumières generally for The Financial Times. It’s a whole new ball game with these restorations.

See You Next Tuesday (MUBI) Reviewed this back in the day—nice to see it resurfacing

A Scanner Darkly (Tubi) Apropos of The Misconceived, mentioned on my podcast with James N. Kienitz Wilkins

The Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki is available for order in bookstores or at your online store of choice. My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service... all of Miyazaki’s lovely animated films are in here—their inspirations, their craft, their influences.

Contact me if you’re interested in setting up an event or screening.

Here I may end with a song.

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw! I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. You can get in touch re: writing, editing, programming, moderating, podcasting, etc. at nicolas.rapold@gmail.com.

Besides hosting the podcast, I’m a writer, editor, and programmer, and the author of the book The Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki (available now) and the editor of the forthcoming Frederick Wiseman: Interviews. My features, interviews, festival reports, and reviews are published in The Financial Times, Sight & Sound, Screen Slate, The New York Times, Filmmaker, Documentary Magazine, Air Mail, BOMB, and W Magazine. (Dearly departed publications where I’ve also written include The Village Voice, Stop Smiling, The New York Sun, and The L Magazine.) I’m also proud of the film series and screenings I’ve programmed, including both retrospectives and premieres—so do drop me a line if you’d like to collaborate.

On the editorial side, I worked as editor-in-chief of Film Comment magazine, where I was for 15 years in all. 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 from the National Society of Film Critics.