Steven Spielberg, David Zaslav and Paul Thomas Anderson discuss the immediacy of film preservation and Warner Bros. dedication during the opening night of the TCM Classic Festival

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO and President David Zaslav, just a day after revealing details of the new combined streaming service Max, joined industry titans Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson to open another area close to the heart of the studio to explore, which he now leads to announce. : The Importance of Restoration and Conservation Warner Bros.’ rich legacy of film classics, especially as it approaches its 100th anniversary. He appeared on the opening night of the 14th TCM Classic Film Festival with Spielberg and Anderson in a conversation moderated by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz. The release model — set up and dated to 2021 under former CEO Jason Kilar — made it clear that the Studios’ commitment to the preservation and well-being of the studio’s rich library will be a priority in its management. (Turner Classic Movies is a cable channel under the WBD umbrella.)

“I’m a fan, just like you. If it wasn’t for me, I’d be sitting with you,” Zaslav told the packed audience at the TCL Chinese Imax Theater. “I watch Turner Classic Movies all the time. It’s the history of our country, the films. In no other medium do you come together. Most of the things we do we do alone, but you go to the theater with a friend. There are people around you. The lights go out. And it’s magical. This happened to me when I was very young in Brooklyn and I took my dad there on the weekends. And it’s that idea of ​​a story, it can change the way you see yourself, the way you see the world. And I think it’s important, especially these days, that we tell stories. It is now the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. It’s surreal and I’m so lucky to be at the forefront of this amazing historic company. But in the 1930s, the Warner Brothers themselves were making more than 100 movies a year… And if you lived on a farm in Oklahoma, you saw what New York looked like, and that’s what you dress like when you go out on a date. Movies taught people the stories of America, the stories of the world, and in many ways how to be an American. And therefore we have a great obligation. These are two of the greatest filmmakers of the last of our generation, my generation. That is why I am very happy to be here. And we are all in the film industry. We want to tell many stories, which we all hope you can see and take with you on Main Street in America. We need it.”

Spielberg and Anderson both serve on the board of directors of the Film Foundation, the organization founded by Martin Scorsese to promote film restoration and preservation. In collaboration with TFF and TCM, Warners restores ten of their classics, incl Rio Bravo, the 1959 Howard Hawks western, which opened TCM Fest last night with the world premiere of its 4K restoration (91-year-old co-star Angie Dickinson appeared for a brief chat before the film, and both she and It looked better than ever). There is also 1955 by Elia Kazan east of Eden with James Dean in the first of his three films for Warner Bros. for his tragic death at the age of 24. Spielberg said, explaining how titles are chosen, nearly 1,000 since 1990 to date. And every studio has that, but we try to find the films, not the films that are our favorite films, but films that tell a very unique story of this country and the people of this country, and not just this country, but We store experimental films, documentaries and already 97 international films. So it won’t stop. And I just have to say, I’m so proud that Marty (Scorsese) we’re all very busy making our films, but in 1990 Marty put all that aside and said, ‘No, we prioritized it.

Anderson went a step further and made it even more personal. “Sometimes it even goes beyond the history of the company … it ends up protecting memories, like very, very important memories that we all have individually.” “Where was I when I saw this? E.T?’ I remember it very well, and I remember the friends I was with, and I remember who I saw that movie with, and I remember the movie,” he said. “Yes, it is the preservation of our work. But it also preserves our memories and helps us preserve those memories so that you want to relive that moment of that feeling when you walked into a theater. We all want to capture our memories, but sometimes they fade before us, but we can capture them if we keep them that way.

Spielberg, who Scorsese called the film expert he sort of “branded” in the Film Foundation’s selection process (along with longtime TFF manager Margaret Bodde), named one of his favorite Westerns from the 1961s. one eyed jackets, the only film its star Marlon Brando has ever directed. He couldn’t find a decent copy of it, even on VHS, but through their efforts to preserve it, he was finally able to find a negative in decent condition, the key to preserving it forever. Anderson said Christopher Nolan put the spotlight on the 1964 barbershop comedy Topkapi Peter Ustinov desperately won an Oscar and TFF is working on it as well as a Max Ophuls classic, Caught which he found difficult to find in representative form.

Zaslav, of course a savvy film buff himself, mentioned a few films he wants to ensure are preserved. “You know, when I think about what we have to do, what our duty is to move forward in the spirit of Warner Bros., I think of three films,” Zaslav said, noting their historical and social value. “Black Legion, a 1930s film that took a lot of guts at the time, but it was a film that defied the KKK. Warner Bros. were even sued for displaying the Klu Klux Klan badge, and they won the case. And Confessions of a Nazi Spy… the first film that talked about what was going on in Germany.”

Zaslav also mentioned that a major Oscar-winning best picture was coming out after the war, 20th Century Fox Gentleman’s Agreement with Gregory Peck, a film that deals directly with the horrors of anti-Semitism. “I think I called Steven when I saw it because it was right around the time that there was a big incident with Kanye West and we had this whole moment of being in America and hating others questioning, and Turner Classic Movies Gentleman’s Agreement, and I think you (Spielberg) stood in front of it and talked about the subject… We tell stories to entertain, but a lot of what you do and what film history does is a way for us to do that Cure. And it is a way for us to tell what is good and what is good not OK.”