The Last Thing I Saw

Ep. 392: Ildiko Enyedi on her new film Silent Friend, tree time, the everlasting serenity of Tony Leung, and theories of consciousness

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Silent Friend is the latest feature from filmmaker Ildiko Enyedi, whose On Body and Soul won the Golden Bear at the 2017 Berlinale and was an Oscar nominee. Like the Hungarian director's debut feature, My Twentieth Century (1989), Silent Friend is her latest ambitious work, spanning three time periods: 1908, when the first female student at a German university attempts to begin her studies; 1972, when a student finds the activities of a geranium far more intriguing than protests; and 2020, when a visiting professor (played by Tony Leung) conducts experiments around plant consciousness. What ties the eras together is a giant, beautiful gingko tree, in a film that’s equally a work of ideas, sensuous textures, and youthful experience. I had the pleasure of chatting with Enyedi during her visit to New York for the release of Silent Friend, and the conversation fairly quickly went into the realm of deep tree thoughts.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 391: Michael Lee Nirenberg on Cinematic Immunity, his new oral history about New York filmmaking crews

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I go behind the scenes with filmmaker and author Michael Lee Nirenberg, whose new book Cinematic Immunity is an oral history of New York filmmaking of a different sort. Rather than directors or screenwriters, Nirenberg interviewed crew members across departments—and decades—to recount the making of movies like The French Connection and Do the Right Thing, shows like Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and The Sopranos, and generally the ethos of working with Sidney Lumet or Spike Lee. As our conversation demonstrates, we were able to delve into stories and anecdotes that offer different perspectives and angles on film culture and the esprit de corps of studio filmmaking.

“Cinematic Immunity: An Oral History of New York Filmmaking As Told by the Crews That Got the Shot” is available for purchase online and in bookstores. Also, the Frank Perry film that's mentioned, Last Summer (1969), is screening on May 3 at the Paris Theater.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 390: James N. Kienitz Wilkins on The Misconceived

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Destined to be one of my favorite movies of 2026, The Misconceived is the latest feature from James N. Kienitz Wilkins, a filmmaker who’s always boldly playing with film form, ideas around authenticity and class, and how we talk about cinema. The Misconceived centers on a carpenter, Tyler, who once wanted to be a filmmaker and whom we now join renovating the country cabin of a college classmate, Tobin, who has found success as an artist. On paper it's an "indie drama" of class tensions and resentments—but it's filmed using motion capture, a computer graphics game engine, and naturalistic, scathingly funny dialogue streaked with savvy movie and critical references. I was delighted to speak with Wilkins about The Misconceived, the benefits of motion capture, the post-2016 political morass, cinephilia, and much more.

The Misconceived opens the First Look 2026 at the Museum of the Moving Image (which runs April 23 to May 3) and then plays at Anthology Film Archives in May.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 389: Amy Taubin on The Christophers, Ken Jacobs Tributes, Kontinental 25, her New Directors pick, Elvira Notari, Crimson Gold, plus Fiume o Morte!

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. It’s Amy Taubin Time! I’m delighted to share another conversation with Amy Taubin, covering new releases and repertory selections. Among the new films included are The Christophers (directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel), Kontinental 25 (Radu Jude), Fiume o Morte! (Ivan Bezinovic), and from New Directors New Films 2025, Chronovisor (Kevin Walker and Jack Auen). Taubin also discusses the city-wide tribute to the late Ken Jacobs, aka The Whole Shebang, screening across New York, as well as a documentary about pioneering filmmaker Elvira Notari. Plus, as some cultural counterprogramming to the news: we revisit a pivotal Jafar Panahi film from the 2000s, Crimson Gold.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 388: Margaret Barton-Fumo on Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, Breaking Glass, Paying for It, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, plus early Mira Nair

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week, friend of the pod Margaret Barton-Fumo returns to talk about her recent writing on music-related movies. A critic and the host of the show No Pussyfooting on East Village Radio, she’s been writing booklets for Fun City Editions as well as contrib, and this time she brings a pair of movies about young female singers who suddenly capture the imagination of the public: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982, directed by Lou Adler) and Breaking Glass (1980, directed by Brian Gibson). Then she talks about some recent viewing: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (directed by Nia DaCosta), and the Canadian independent film Paying for It (directed by Sook-Yin Lee, adapting graphic memoir by Chester Brown). And I chime in with my recent viewing of Mira Nair’s early documentary So Far from India (1983).

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass