Podcast appearances and mentions of jessica kiang

Ep. 323: Jessica Kiang on Bi Gan's Resurrection and Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I'm back at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about the highlights with another all-star cast of guests. This episode I sat down with Jessica Kiang who kindly gives virtuosic readings of two standouts from late in the festival: Resurrection (directed by Bi Gan) and The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt), plus some thoughts on what films she'd like to see win awards. Kiang is as usual writing reviews for Variety at Cannes; she is also programmer at Belfast Film Festival and a member of the selection committee of the Berlinale. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our sixth episode from the French Riviera, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics and FC stalwarts Miriam Bale, Robert Daniels, and Jessica Kiang to discuss their recent viewing at the fest, including Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest, Julia Ducournau's Alpha (23:09), Akinola Davies Jr.'s My Father's Shadow, and Hlynur Pálmason's The Love That Remains (49:25). Subscribe today to The Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2025 edition.

Ep. 268: Venice 2024: Jessica Kiang on April, Queer, Vermiglio, Happyend, 2073 Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 81st Venice Film Festival had a few more important films up its sleeve in its final days, and I was very happy to sit down in Venice with Jessica Kiang of Variety for a chat. Titles discussed include: April (directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili), Queer (Luca Guadagnino), Vermiglio (Maura Delpero), Happyend (Neo Sora), and 2073 (Asif Kapadia). This episode was recorded before the awards, where the honors included the Grand Jury Prize for Vermiglio and the Special Jury Prize for April. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 255: Cannes 2024 Redux: Jessica Kiang on Black Dog, 2nd Features, The Other Way Around, Viet and Nam Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Every year at Cannes there are a few more films I want to talk about, even as the time is running out at the festival. So for a very special postscript (and postgame), critic Jessica Kiang of Variety joined to talk about the ones that got away. Among the titles discussed: Un Certain Regard prize-winner Black Dog (directed by Guan Hu), Quinzaine prize-winner The Other Way Around (Jonas Trueba), Viet and Nam (Truong Minh Quy), and a number of second features from female directors, including The Balconettes (Noémie Merlant) and All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Cannes 2024 has arrived—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors is high-tailing it from screening to screening, ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. For today's episode, critics Kelli Weston and Jessica Kiang join Film Comment Editor Devika Girish to unpack three of the most highly anticipated premieres of the festival: Francis Ford Coppola's operatic fable Megalopolis, Andrea Arnold's magical realist Bird, and Yorgos Lanthimos's macabre anthology film, Kinds of Kindness. Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2024 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2024 has arrived—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors is high-tailing it from screening to screening, ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. For today's episode, critics Kelli Weston and Jessica Kiang join Film Comment Editor Devika Girish to unpack three of the most highly anticipated premieres of the festival: Francis Ford Coppola's operatic fable Megalopolis, Andrea Arnold's magical realist Bird, and Yorgos Lanthimos's macabre anthology film, Kinds of Kindness. Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2024 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Today we're traveling to early 2000s Chile (but also 18th century France, and some other times, too) with vampire-themed political satire El Conde! Join us as we learn about Lucia Hiriart, Augusto Pinochet's shady money dealings, that time he got arrested in London, and more! Sources: John Bartlett, "Widow of Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet Dies at 99," The Guardian, available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/16/lucia-hiriart-widow-chilean-dictator-augusto-pinchocet-dies-age-99 Eva Vergara, "Lucia Hiriart, Widow of Chilean Dictator Pinochet, Dies at 99." Washington Post, Available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2021/12/17/pinochet-widow-hiriart-dead/ Andres Oppenheimer, "Ex-Dictator Had Millions in U.S. Bank," (2004). https://archive-yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/ex-dictator-had-millions-us-bank  Hector Tobar and, Eva Vergara. "The World; New Evidence Shatters Chileans' Image of a Frugal Pinochet: [HOME EDITION]." Los Angeles Times, Aug 02, 2004. O'Brien, Timothy,L. "At Riggs Bank, A Tangled Path Led to Scandal." New York Times (1923-), Jul 19, 2004. TIMOTHY L O'BRIEN and,LARRY ROHTER. "U.S. and Others Gave Millions to Pinochet." New York Times, Dec 07, 2004, Late Edition (East Coast). TIMOTHY L O'BRIEN and,LARRY ROHTER. "The Pinochet Money Trail." New York Times, Dec 12, 2004, Late Edition (East Coast). Minder, Raphael. "Spain Reopens Pinochet Inquiry into Tax Evasion and Laundering: [Foreign Desk]." New York Times, Jul 31, 2021, Late Edition (East Coast). Robinson, Eugene. "Thief of State: [FINAL Edition]." The Washington Post, Dec 12, 2006. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6606013  RT: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/el_conde Jessica Kiang, "'El Conde' Review: Pablo Larraín's Bizarro-World Reckoning With Pinochet's Bloodthirsty Legacy," Variety, https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/el-conde-review-pablo-larrain-the-count-1235708790/  Drew Gillis, "El Conde review: Dictators suck in Pablo Larraín's vampiric satire," AV Club, https://www.avclub.com/el-conde-review-pablo-larrain-1850832103  Carlos Aguilar, "El Conde," https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/el-conde-movie-review-2023  Variety, "'El Conde' Cinematographer Breaks Down the Flying Vampire Nun Sequence Using a 90-Foot Crane & Wires," https://youtu.be/bUBbN_xWnCE?si=LRZrkhtwn1zCBhcE  Veronica Diaz-Cerda, "General Pinochet's Arrest: 20 Years On, Here's How It Changed Global Justice," The Conversation, available at https://theconversation.com/general-pinochet-arrest-20-years-on-heres-how-it-changed-global-justice-104806 """Pinochet Arrested in London,"" The Guardian, available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/1998/oct/18/pinochet.chile"

Ep. 229: Berlin 2024 with Jessica Kiang: Dahomey, Pepe, Through the Graves the Wind Is Blowing, The Human Hibernation, The Devil's Bath Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I continue my reporting from the Berlin Film Festival 2024 with a grand episode starring Jessica Kiang, who is writing about the Berlinale for Variety and The New York Times. The movies we discuss include: Pepe (directed by Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias), Dahomey (Mati Diop), Through the Graves the Wind Is Blowing (Travis Wilkerson, director of Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?), The Human Hibernation (Anna-Cornudella Castro), and The Devil's Bath (Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala). Stay tuned for more from Berlin! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2024 Berlinale kicked off on February 15. Throughout the festival, we'll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year's selection, including new films by Olivier Assayas, Mati Diop, Bruno Dumont, Hong Sangsoo, and many more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter to stay up-to-date. On today's episode, FC Editors Devika Girish is joined by critics (and FC stalwarts) Jordan Cronk, Jessica Kiang, and Jonathan Romney to talk about the festival's change in leadership, before turning to the cinematic haul of the first couple days, including Tim Mielants's Small Things Like These, Assayas's Suspended Time, Alonso Ruizpalacios's La Cocina, Nicolas Philibert's At Averroes & Rosa Parks, P. S. Vinothraj's An Adamant Girl, and Ruth Beckermann's Favoriten. Stay up to date with all of our Berlinale coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/berlin/

Welcome to the first episode of a 3-part special on the 2024 International Film Festival of Rotterdam.Host Nadine attended the film festival as a journalist and media maker this year. This series was recorded on site and shares three highlights from the dynamic festival.Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich is a filmmaker and artist who makes films concerned with the inner worlds of black women. New Faces of Independent Cinema List." Her film "Ballad of Suzanne Césaire" stars Zita Hanrot and Motell Gyn Foster and had it's world premiere at 2024 IFFR. Madeleine's work has been screened all over the world including at the 2023 Berlinale, the 2022 La Biennale di Venezia, the Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Modern and the Whitney Museum of Art. Her films have been awarded special jury prizes for best experimental film at Blackstar Film Festival and New Orleans Film Festival.In this episode, we talk about this review: Jessica Kiang, Variety. You can read Suzanne Césaire's writing in PDF for free: HERE.Watch some of Madeleine's work on Vimeo and visit: www.madeleinehuntehrlich.com for more on her previous works. You can also follow her on Instagram.In the second episode, you'll meet the head of the festival's Hubert Bals Fund - Tamara Tatishvili. In the third episode, you'll hear from Julia de Simone, director behind "Praia Formosa" and winner of the Hubert Bals Fund development program in 2014.Thanks to the IFFR, and its specifically press team, for this opportunity.Nadine Reumer is an actress and producer based in Amsterdam. You can follow the podcast @inherlenspodcast on Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 4, 2023 is: splenetic • splih-NET-ik • adjective Splenetic is a formal word that typically describes expressions of sharp annoyance and anger. // The newspaper publisher's splenetic editorials often struck fear into local politicians. See the entry > Examples: "A strange combination of intricate, almost sci-fi-inflected psychological thriller, splenetic social-breakdown broadside and two-hander (torture) chamber drama, it is an exercise in bravura filmmaking applied to a story so relentlessly grim you might wish it were a little less well-made, giving you an excuse to look away." — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 8 Sept. 2022 Did you know? To vent one's spleen is to express anger. There are healthy ways of doing this, of course, but vent too much of your spleen, or vent it too often, and you may be accused of being splenetic. Both spleen and splenetic trace back to the Latin word splen, which refers to the bodily organ responsible for storing and filtering blood, among other functions. So why the association with anger? In early Western physiology, a person's physical qualities and mental disposition were believed to be determined by the proportion of four bodily humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. The last of these was believed to be secreted by the spleen, and to cause feelings and dispositions ranging from intense sadness (melancholia) to anger and violent temper—hence splenetic. In later years, the "melancholy" sense fell out of use (and the theory of the humors was discredited), but the "angry" sense of splenetic remains with us today.

Ep. 202: Venice 2023 with Jessica Kiang: Priscilla, Green Border, Hit Man, Coup de Chance Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I'm your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I'm reporting from the 80th Venice Film Festival. This time I'm talking with Jessica Kiang, who is writing about the festival for Variety, Sight & Sound, and The New York Times. We discuss premieres from the festival's second week: Sofia Coppola's Priscilla, Agnieszka Holland's Green Border, Richard Linklater's Hit Man, and Woody Allen's Coup de Chance. Please note: the audio may sound different about halfway through because of recording conditions—but don't miss out on Kiang's essential commentary! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 193: Locarno 2023 with Jessica Kiang: Radu Jude's Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Sweet Dreams, Manga D'Terra Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I'm your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I'm reporting from the Locarno film festival, where Radu Jude's Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, has been a major stand-out. Jessica Kiang (Variety) joins the podcast to discuss Radu Jude's film as well as two more titles in Locarno's competition lineup: Ena Sendijarević's Sweet Dreams and Basil Da Cunha's Manga d'Terra. Please note: the audio in this episode may sound different at one point because of a mic change. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow's Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

This week on Screentime John Fardy gives us his verdict on the two big Summer Blockbusters ‘Oppenheimer' and ‘Barbie' when he reviews both with film Critic Chris Wasser. Jessica Kiang of Variety tells us the latest on the Hollywood Strike. Plus John talks to Documentary-Maker Ross Whitaker about his documentary ‘The Road Down Under' which tells the emotionally-charged story of the Irish Women's Soccer Team's journey to this week's World Cup.

Filmoví kritici musejí na karlovarském festivalu zhlédnout několik filmů denně. Jejich úkolem je ukázat divákům, co mohou od filmů očekávat, a čím byl pro ně zajímavý. „Nesmíme zapomínat na to, že nezáleží, jestli se nám film líbil nebo ne. Jde především o naše pocity,“ dodává kritička Jessica Kiang.Všechny díly podcastu Host Radiožurnálu můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

Ep. 181: Cannes #9 with Jessica Kiang on 4 Daughters, La Chimera, Banel and Adama, Only the River Flows, Project Silence Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I'm your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2023 Cannes film festival series continues, recorded live in Cannes! For the latest discussion, I talk with critic Jessica Kiang of Variety about a batch of new films: Kaouther Ben Hania's Four Daughters, Alice Rohrwacher's La Chimera, Ramata-Toulaye Sy's Banel and Adama, Wei Shujun's Only the River Flows, and Kim Tae-gon's Project Silence (affectionately known as Dogs in the Fog!). Stay tuned for more episodes with a delightful array of brilliant critics. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

This week on Screentime John Fardy crosses to Cannes to hear all the gossip about the new Martin Scorsese film with Jessica Kiang from Variety. There's reviews of new version of 'The Little Mermaid' as well as the week's best TV. Plus Martin Maloney aka Eddie Durkan of the Hardy Bucks chats about his favourite film.

Cannes 2023 is here—and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we'll be reporting on all the cinematic goings-on, with our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. First up, critics and frequent FC contributors Jordan Cronk and Jessica Kiang join FC co-deputy editor Devika Girish  to open the proceedings with some lively discussion of early festival films—including Maïwenn's Jeanne du Barry, Steve McQueen's Occupied City, Marie Amachoukeli's Ama Gloria, and Cédric Kahn's The Goldman Case—before previewing this year's lineup. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2023 edition: https://www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Ep. 165: Berlin 2023 Four with Jessica Kiang: Petzold's Afire, Reality, The Shadowless Tower, The Survival of Kindness Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I'm your host, Nicolas Rapold. We continue with the latest and greatest from the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival. For my latest episode, I chat with critic Jessica Kiang who is writing for Variety and The New York Times. We consider this year's festival and discuss Christian Petzold's Afire, Tina Satter's Reality starring Sydney Sweeney, Zhang Lu's The Shadowless Tower, and Rolf de Heer's The Survival of Kindness. Stay tuned for more from the Berlinale! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow's Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 160: Sundance 2023 Five with Jessica Kiang: All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt + The Disappearance of Shere Hite Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I'm your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Sundance Film Festival left me with a number of worthy movies that I couldn't shake from my mind anytime soon. So I'm back with critic Jessica Kiang (Variety) for the second part of our discussion. This time we go into a couple of films that people will definitely continue to talk about: a debut feature with a strong and singular voice, Raven Jackson's All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, and the revelatory documentary from Nicole Newnham, The Disappearance of Shere Hite. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow's Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 159: Sundance 2023 Four with Jessica Kiang: Past Lives, Passages, Notes on Hybrid Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I'm your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Sundance Film Festival has officially wound down but I still have good movies to share with you! This time I joined forces with critic Jessica Kiang, who was reviewing films for Variety at the festival. Our discussion spans two episodes. Part One begins with notes on the hybrid nature of this edition, then moves on to Celine Song's wonderful debut feature Past Lives and Ira Sachs's latest drama, the finely observed love triangle Passages. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow's Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

The Sundance Film Festival triumphantly returns to in-person screenings this year, which of course means that your intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the scene in snowy Park City, bringing you dispatches and podcasts covering all the highlights of the 2023 edition. On today's podcast, Dessane Lopez Cassell (SEEN), Poulomi Das (The Playlist), and Jessica Kiang (Variety) join FC's Devika Girish for another round of Sundance conversation. This time around, the critics discuss festival selections Passages, Shortcomings, A Thousand and One, and Milisuthando. Catch up on all of our Sundance 2023 coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/sundance/sundance-2023/

The Sundance Film Festival triumphantly returns to in-person screenings this year, which of course means that your intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the scene in snowy Park City, bringing you dispatches and podcasts covering all the highlights of the 2023 edition. On today's podcast, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish talks to critics Justin Chang (The Los Angeles Times and Fresh Air) and Jessica Kiang (Variety and elsewhere) about Sundance selections Eileen, You Hurt My Feelings, Past Lives (pro-side this time), and Cat Person. Catch up on all of our Sundance 2023 coverage here.

A long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far away... Well, actually, just a few weeks ago, right here on the good old internet, our esteemed colleague, The New Yorker's Richard Brody, tweeted out two simple words: TÁR WARS. He was referring, of course, to the swirl of controversy around TÁR, one of this year's most talked-about films. The movie, directed by Todd Fields and featuring a central performance from Cate Blanchett, tracks the gradual downfall of one Lydia Tár, the egomaniacal and possibly predatory conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Though a likely lock for many end-of-year lists, TÁR has been fairly divisive among critics. So for today's podcast, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute took inspiration from Mr. Brody's tweet and invited two well-matched gladiators—the valiant Jessica Kiang on the pro-side and the courageous Nathan Lee on the con—to debate the relative merits and demerits of TÁR. Two critics enter, one critic leaves… May the best critic win!

Venice 2022: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, The Banshees of Inisherin, Don't Worry Darling with Jessica Kiang Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I'm your host, Nicolas Rapold. The Venice Film Festival continues to roll out films that are sure to be the subject of discussion this fall, and this time, I talk with critic Jessica Kiang about notable titles from the past few days: Laura Poitras's film about Nan Goldin, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed; Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin, starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Kerry Condon; and Olivia Wilde's Don't Worry Darling, starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. Check back for more from Venice! Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow's Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

I am thrilled to say that my guest this week is Jessica Kiang.  Jessica is an International Critic for Variety, covering all the major European and Asian festivals. She also writes for Sight & Sound, BBC Culture, The New York Times and The Playlist, where she also spent five years as Features Editor. She also regularly features on the Film Comment podcast, which if you like film and discussion and why would you be here otherwise, I highly recommend. Jessica mentions some of the pieces of writing of which she is proudest in the interview, including her New York Times review of Christopher Nolan's Tenet and her essay for the Criterion release of David Cronenberg's Crash, which I urge to you to check out but there are very few and perhaps none of her reviews where I haven't marvelled at her perceptiveness and agility. There is a line towards the end of her Sight & Sound review of The Worst Person in the World where I actually stopped and clapped when I read it. Which is all to say this was rather a joyous occasion, to be able to sit down with Jessica and probe her writing process and how she configures her reviews and what she keeps in mind she writing them.  We talk about how she transitioned from a career in advertising to writing about film full-time, her tips for aspiring film critics, managing relationships with editors and other writers the she looks to for inspiration. I was really honoured to have Jessica as a guest and I don't think our conversation disappoints. This episode 113 of Best Girl Grip.

The General Witchfinders present: Folk in Hell! (a spinoff podcast)The Innocents NOT the 1961 film with Deborah Kerr, which we WILL be covering in the mothership show at some point, which has a far more comprehensive Wikipedia article than the sparsely covered film that we did watch, hence Ross adding in this short paragraph to bulk out the intro a little - Rather, we are talking about - The Innocents or De Uskyldige  - a 2021 Norwegian supernatural thriller film directed by Eskil Vogt.Four children become friends during the summer holidays, and out of sight of the adults they, discover they have hidden powers. While exploring their newfound abilities in the nearby forests and playgrounds, their innocent play takes a dark turn and strange things begin to happen.Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "low-tech, high-tension", writing that "The lonely, uncanny and sometimes unthinkingly violent world of childhood is explored with chilling candour and exceptional skill". Jessica Kiang of Variety praised the performances of the child actors as well as the film's atmosphere, calling the film "both a satisfying genre exercise and a minute observation of the process by which young children acquire morality."SPECIAL GUEST: Becca (Ross's long-suffering wife) Get bonus content on PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Cannes #10 with Jessica Kiang: Holy Spider, Corsage, Metronom, Showing Up Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I'm your host, Nicolas Rapold. The highlights from the 2022 Cannes Film Festival continue with critic Jessica Kiang, who has been filing reviews for Variety throughout the festival. We discuss Ali Abbasi's controversial serial killer thriller Holy Spider, Marie Kreutzer's Corsage, Alexandru Belc's Metronom, and a film that showed on the last day of premieres, Kelly Reichardt's Showing Up. Plus, a few of Kiang's picks for the awards (which prove prescient...). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow's Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

With Cannes 2022 winding to a close, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry's grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today's podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish talks to FC Podcast superstars Jonathan Romney and Jessican Kiang about the festival's denouement, touching on Baz Luhrmann's batshit Elvis; the latest slice of la vie quotidienne from the Dardenne Brothers, Tori and Lokita; the devisive new Claire Denis film The Stars at Noon; and two films from Ukraine: Maksym Nakonechnyi's Butterfly Vision and Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk's Pamfir. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of festival coverage at filmcomment.com

With Cannes 2022 kicking off this week, Film Comment is on the ground, reporting on all the cinematic excitement at the film industry's grandest annual event with the help of our on-the-Croisette crew of contributors. On today's podcast, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish found a quiet corner to chat with frequent FC contributors Jessica Kiang and Jordan Cronk about their hot takes from the first three days of the fest. They discuss Kirill Serebrennikov's Tchaikovsky's Wife, Pietro Marcello's Scarlet, Michel Hazanavicius's Coupez!, and Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch's The Eight Mountains. Don't forget to subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for early access to a steady stream of our Cannes 2022 coverage, including interviews, dispatches, and podcasts.

Cannes 2022 is here—and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we'll be reporting on all the cinematic goings-on, with our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. First up, we welcome FC contributing editor Jonathan Romney and frequent FC contributor Jessica Kiang on the podcast to preview this year's lineup. We talk about the history of the festival—and how it's changed over the years—before discussing some of the films we're most excited to see, including David Cronenberg's Crimes of the Future, Claire Denis's The Stars at Noon, Jerzy Skolimowski's Eo, Kelly Reichardt's Showing Up, and others. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today at filmcomment.com for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2022 edition.

Against all odds, the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival returned to cinemas this year after last year's virtual edition. For this week's podcast, Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited two of FC's Berlinale correspondents, Jessica Kiang and Edo Choi, to discuss (and debate) some of the highlights from the festival. Our spirited conversation touched upon some highly anticipated titles like Claire Denis's Fire and Bertrand Bonello's Coma, as well as some surprise standouts: Ulrich Seidl's Rimini, Cyril Schäublin's Unrest, Alain Guiraudie's Nobody's Hero, and more. For more on this year's Berlinale, including dispatches from Jonathan Romney and Erika Balsom, subscribe to the Film Comment Letter on filmcomment.com

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. 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

KARYN PARSONS BIOAssured young actor who gained exposure playing Hilary Banks, the spoiled, self-centered cousin of Will Smith on the hit sitcom, "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (NBC, 1990-96). Parsons had previously worked as a model and appeared in nearly two dozen TV commercials before making her TV debut in "Roughhouse" (CBS, 1988), a busted pilot directed by Martha Coolidge. She began to branch out into a feature career playing the female lead in "Class Act" (1992), a teen comedy starring pop rappers Kid 'N' Play. Parsons was selected to perform similar chores opposite Damon Wayans in "Major Payne" (1995). She returned to series TV in 1996 co-starring with Lori Petty in the short-lived Fox sitcom "Lush Life," in which the two played roommates.Karyn has gone on to found and produce "Sweet Blackberry," an award-winning series of children's animated films, to share stories about unsung black heroes in history, featuring narration from stars such as Alfre Woodard, Queen Latifah, and Chris Rock. The videos have been screened on HBO and Netflix, and enjoyed by schools and libraries across the country. She is the author of Flying Free: How Bessie Coleman's Dreams Took Flight and How High the Moon. Karyn married director Alexandre Rockwell (In the Soup, 13 Moons) - who was formerly married to Jennifer Beals, who, along with Sam Rockwell is an exec producer on her latest film, SWEET THING. Karyn lives with her family in New York City.ABOUT SWEET THING, IN VIRTUAL THEATERS JUNE 18thSYNOPSISTwo children in contemporary New Bedford, Massachusetts spend an eventful summer in a beach house with their mother and her boyfriend in SWEET THING, director Alexandre Rockwell's poetic, uplifting rendering of childhood which captured the Berlinale Crystal Bear in the Generation K-plus section in 2020. In SWEET THING, Billie (Lana Rockwell, Little Feet), a 15-year-old girl who fantasizes Billie Holiday as a sort of fairy godmother, is forced to navigate the evolving challenges of her life while she plays mother to her 11-year-old brother, Nico (Nico Rockwell, Little Feet). They soon meet up with another adolescent, run away from home, and together roam the area free from their parents' watchful gaze. Discovering freedom and enchantment among New Bedford's boats and railway tracks, the trio fantasize about a life of luxury when they break into a posh home, and are able to carry the taste of affluence into their adventures. An ode to that trying age when young people prepare to take their first step into adulthood, SWEET THING, starring Rockwell's children Lana and Nico, Karyn Parsons and Will Patton, is an intense but ultimately uplifting, portrait that captures the essence of that time in life when a day can last forever.Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpQxMrGPSy4"A lively, bittersweet meditation on an impoverished childhood that is still rich in innocence and imagination.... With verve and vitality it pays a dreamy-eyed retrospective debt to films past, and largely due to the beguiling performance from Rockwell's own daughter Lana, ultimately delivers a moving, tousled journey of discovery...."-- Jessica Kiang, Variety"Rockwell's film about specific heartbreaking circumstances is accessibly potent in its portrayal of childhood and memory. He taps into the experience of complex emotions - fear mixed with hope, love entangled with heartbreak, and childhood prematurely ripped away - in ways that exemplify the unique potential of cinema." -- Mary-Catherine Harvey, The Upcoming"Gorgeous... stunningly rendered....this is a film that deserves to be seen"-- Stephen Silver , Goomba Stomp

In case you missed the exciting news: we just relaunched the Film Comment Podcast last week after a yearlong hiatus. We're glad to be back, and in this episode, we're looking at one of the big developments that the film world has grappled with while we were away: the emergence of virtual film festivals. As the pandemic shut down cinemas and made travel impossible, festivals adopted a variety of strategies to keep bringing movies to their audiences. Some, like Cannes, were cancelled; others went fully online; and many, like the New York Film Festival, Sundance, and the Berlinale, experimented with hybrid formats. These new models have opened up a host of questions. Is it really a festival if you're not in a cinema? What does the virtual format expose about the mechanics of festivals? And as theaters start to reopen, are these changes here to stay? In this episode, Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish invited two festival veterans—curator Abby Sun (DocYard; My Sight Is Lined With Visions), and critic Jessica Kiang (Variety, The Playlist)—to dig into these questions and more. This episode of the Film Comment Podcast is sponsored by MUBI. Film Comment readers and listeners can get 30 days of great cinema free at mubi.com/filmcomment.

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. For the final installment in our essential picks from the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, I'm joined by Berlin-based critic Jessica Kiang, who wrote about the festival for The New York Times and filed multiple reviews of highlights for Variety. Movies discussed include The Scary of 61st, from Red Scare podcast co-host Dasha Nekrasova; the Georgian small-scale epic What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?; fresh readings of Alice Diop's We, the Vietnamese curio Taste, and Alonso Ruizpalacios's meta-docufiction A Cop Movie; and Petite Maman, Céline Sciamma's follow-up to Portrait of a Lady on Fire. 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

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. On this Sundance episode, critic Jessica Kiang (Variety, The Playlist) shares some of her recent favorites, including The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet, the Sparks documentary, and Sabaya. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substack.com Music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host Nicolas Rapold. This is the 20th episode of the podcast, and we'll be sharing our highlights from the year in movies. You might notice a few likely candidates are missing, such as First Cow or Time, but that's because we tried to talk about movies that haven't been covered as much on this podcast, though a few old favorites do sneak in. It's been a long year so I got some brilliant critics to share their picks: Amy Taubin, contributing editor at Artforum; Eric Hynes, curator of film at Museum of the Moving Image; Beatrice Loayza, a widely published freelance critic; and for the first time, Jessica Kiang, a veteran of Variety and other publications. For complete show notes with links, sign up for my newsletter at rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome, one and all, to the latest episode of The Film Stage Show! Today, Brian Roan, Michael Snydel, and Bill Graham are joined by Jessica Kiang to discuss Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, the new film from the Ross brothers, which is now available digitally. Enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. For a limited time, all new Patreon supporters will receive a free Blu-ray/DVD. After becoming a contributor, e-mail podcast@thefilmstage.com for an up-to-date list of available films. The Film Stage Show is supported by MUBI, a curated streaming service showcasing exceptional films from around the globe. Every day, MUBI premieres a new film. Whether it's a timeless classic, a cult favorite, or an acclaimed masterpiece — it's guaranteed to be either a movie you've been dying to see or one you've never heard of before and there will always be something new to discover. Try it for free for 30 days at mubi.com/filmstage.

We check in with Variety critic Jessica Kiang at Venice Film Festival. Jeremy Sims is in the studio talking about his new documentary Wayne, about the incredible life and career of motorcycle world champion Wayne Gardner, and Vulture magazine's Jen Chaney talks Emmys predictions.

We check in with Variety critic Jessica Kiang at Venice Film Festival. Jeremy Sims is in the studio talking about his new documentary Wayne, about the incredible life and career of motorcycle world champion Wayne Gardner, and Vulture magazine's Jen Chaney talks Emmys predictions.