Longtime film critic (notably 30 years at Newsweek) and member of the board of film festivals (New York, Los Angeles, Palm Springs), David Ansen conversed animatedly with mentee Matthew Campbell, Artistic Director of Denver Film Festival. Topics ranged from Ansen’s youth in movie-adjacent LA, where his father worked at MGM making two-reelers, to his two years in a Huerfano County, Colorado dome commune (along with Larry Laszlo, Denver celebrity photographer), to a stint in Boston at The Real Paper, a film critic incubator.
He talked about how important magazines once were for reviews of new releases, and that early on he had the freedom to write about rising filmmakers like Werner Herzog, before the editorial staff grew stricter about focusing on big studio releases. Now, he observed, the focus of reviewers is speed – they can’t think for a few days (or even weeks) about their views of a film. Instead, the prize goes to whomever is first to post. Our fragmented media landscape has also created subcultures with vastly different tastes, from the Marvel-verse to quiet international films and documentaries that will never circulate beyond a small dedicated audience.
He mentioned that snark is now taboo. Knowing his fellow critics, he said he can tell when they’re straining to make anodyne remarks in lieu of their true opinions. Also, he said the rise of social media and instantaneous exposure have changed how open interview subjects dare to be. He shared an anecdote about a well-known director in the early 1990s – they met in the director’s hotel room, where coke was spread on a table (none offered to Ansen). After he concluded the interview and left, the director followed him into the hall to request that he not mention the woman who’d been snorting coke with him. The coke, who cares? The woman, no, please say nothing. He said that would never happen today.
He also distinguished between city-based film festivals and industry-based ones: the industry festivals (Cannes, Sundance, Toronto) are much bigger, and focus on getting distribution for new releases. City festivals like Denver’s are film-centric: organizers and attendees are interested in seeing and talking about movies, not selling them to someone else. Campbell noted that while many city festivals have been shrinking since Covid, Denver’s is thriving. Ansen speculated that people enjoy the openness of mid-sized festivals, where they can strike up conversations with those around them, and share the discovery and delight of seeing films that will never have mass distribution. Ansen spoke briefly about Cannes, saying the audiences are very feisty, readily booing, and sometimes destroying the prospects of movies they don’t like.
Ansen estimated he’s seen around 14,000 movies (he's maintained a list!) which for many years didn’t include what he saw on TV. Now he does stream some, but prefers the big screen, particularly for older films which were made for movie houses. At 80, Ansen is sharp and funny – we could have listened for hours more as he and Campbell chatted.
