National Theatre
10925 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
10925 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
64 people
favorited this theater
Showing 701 - 725 of 757 comments
View link
Is it definitely being demolished and not just closed? if so, what will be built on this site?
If this is confirmed, I plan to be there for the final show, yes.
Has this closing been confirmed by Mann?
Who’s going to be there Thursday night for the final show? Thank god they’re going out with Shooter, a fairly decent movie that will make good use of the big screen and the sound.
Bummer! Cinematour recently posted shots I took in summer 2006.
http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=2134
LIGHTS OUT!
Westwood’s Mann National, a big single-screen house that once played the exclusive runs of The Godfather and The Exorcist, will close at the end of this week. This theatre has been dying for years. We live in a megaplex stadium-seating world, and sagging-at-the-heels behemoths like the National — a once-grand showplace that still has pretty good and projection quality — are all going to be toast sooner or later.
Mann’s National has a date with the wrecking ball
I mentioned the National’s closing to a twentysomething L.A. woman, and she told me she’d never been there. The crowds aren’t going to Westwood any more. I can let the National go but please don’t tell me this is going to happen to Mann’s Village also. If this is in the cards don’t want to hear about it. The same thing that happened in NYC is slowly happing to LA, the single-screen theatres are closing, and what LA will have left will be multiplexes like the Arclight, the Grove, teh AMC Century City and The Bridge.
The National was used last year for a scene in Zodiac. Mark Ruffalo can’t handle watching Dirty Harry and goes out into the lobby for a smoke, and then Jake Gyllenhaal comes up to him and chats him up about the case.
View link
To clarify further…“Zodiac” wasn not the first production to use the Viper. It is, however, believed to be the first to use that camera in a fashion where the imagery was recorded as data, rather than recording onto tape.
Learn more about the process here:
View link
Per IMDB website under trivia for “Zodiac”:
“David Fincher decided to use the Thomson Viper FilmStream camera to shoot the entire film, making this the first feature film shot exclusively with the camera, and in the uncompressed digital video format. Zodiac is the first "Hollywood Studio Production” shot with the VIPER and in an uncompressed digital “data” Format. The first ever shot feature Film shot entirely with the VIPER is the British independent production Silence Becomes You (2005) by director Stephanie Sinclaire. After Silence Becomes You, other independent European Movie-Productions like Highlander: The Source (2007) (director Brett Leonard) and Scorpion (2007) (director: Julien Seri) have used the same work flow."
Confusion must have been that this was the forst time for this particular camera.
mannr,
I’m afraid you’re mistaken on this digital issue. That, or else you’ve fallen victim to some deceptive press releases or news reports.
To clarify, over the last five or six years, there have been dozens of productions shot using any of several digital formats. Many independent productions and a growing number of TV shows have been originated this way. Some of the major movies shot digitally whose titles most moviegoers will recognize include:
Apocalypto
Click
Collateral
Flyboys
Grindhouse (“Planet Terror” half)
Jackpot
Miami Vice
Once Upon A Time In Mexico
A Prairie Home Companion
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Spy Kids 2
Spy Kids 3
Star Wars: Episode II Attack Of The Clones
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge Of The Sith
Superman Returns
Zodiac
Digital photography and digital projection are two separate processes. For a movie to be projected digitally it does not need to have been shot digitally, and vice versa.
Yes without using film!
Yes, what about Star Wars II & III, Superman Returns…
“Zodiac was the first movie to be shot totally in digital…” SAY WHAT???
The National did not open Zodiac because it doesn’t have digital projection. Zodiac was the first movie to be shot totally in digital,thus the Bruin opened it(It has digital projection).
I saw Rocky VI there back in January and it is the same. Personally for me I like the retro 60’s interior just the way it is. Part of it’s charm. The only thing I would do is put in new seats and paint the ceiling.
What is the interior like now? They could have spent this time remodeling the theatre for the summer blockbuster season. Now it seems the National won’t be able to book any first-run blockbuster hits (Shrek the Third, Spiderman 3).
This week you can see “Zodiac” at the National. It moved over from the Bruin. Now you watch the movie at the theatre where filmed scenes! Too bad they didn’t just open “Zodiac” at the National. In earlier days they probably would have as its a Paramount Picture. Now the National just seems to get the leftovers and the move-overs. Sad.
The National shows up in “Zodiac” posing as a theatre in San Francisco (for the 1972 premiere of “Dirty Harry”). Looking back on the film, the shot they use for the exterior (which is a more traditional entrance and marquee) clearly does not match the interior (The National’s two floors and large windows).
The production designer/location scouts must have realized that no theatre screams “Early 70’s” like the National. If they do end up closing it or, God forbid, getting rid of its funky 70’s decor, at least it will always be preserved on film. And “Zodiac,” with its spot on cinematography and production design, is likely to become the gold standard of filmic representations of that period.
I’ll truly miss this screen. The only movie I ever saw here was the secret Dolby Digital test of “Star Trek VI.”
Actually, now that I think of it, I take that back; I also saw “Single White Female” there.
At any rate, it’s a shame they’re shutting this one down. One less single-screen palace.
Saw a matinee of Superman Returns as a “farewell” to the theatre this weekend and found out that Mann has signed an additiona 6 month lease! That would get it through the holidays.
I got deeply nostalgic watching the traditional Superman opening credits in the National glorious 1970’s decor auditorium. Even the smell of the place reminded me seeing the original Superman as a kid at the Tacoma Mall Twin in 1978.
The National’s presentation was excellent as usual.
I was wondering myself and was thinking about making a visit this weekend. It sounds like a short term agreement has been made but would imagine the National’s days are numbered. Mann has been trying to build a Stadium seating Multiplex in Westwood for a while. If they succeed in that they will probably drop the National and the Festival and keep the Village and Bruin. They could make money on the National if they booked more premieres there, but I guess most studios want the Village and Bruin. I could never understand why they let the National get so run down. They could have at least put new more comfortable seats in it. I’m happy it will be around a bit longer; it is a great theatre and last of its kind.
I was wondering myself and was thinking about making a visit this weekend. It sounds like a short term agreement has been made but would imagine the National’s days are numbered. Mann has been trying to build a Stadium seating Multiplex in Westwood for a while. If they succeed in that they will probably drop the National and the Festival and keep the Village and Bruin. They could make money on the National if they booked more premieres there, but I guess most studios want the Village and Bruin. I could never understand why they let the National get so run down. They could have at least put new more comfortable seats in it. I’m happy it will be around a bit longer; it is a great theatre and last of its kind.
I had heard that it was closing at the end of July, but I just called today to ask if Clerks II is going to be the last film they show and was told by a manager that something had been “worked out.” Has anyone else heard about this? The manager didn’t seem fully confident about what he was saying, so maybe it is just going to be open on a month to month basis. He didn’t seem to really want to talk to me, so maybe someone else could get more information. The direct number to the box office is (310) 208-3946.
It’s all about the real estate it sits on. I would love to see revivals in the theatre. It was a fun theatre to run the booth during those days. It’s like those days when the Cinerama Dome was stuck with one of those lame bookings and running to 10 people per show. What saved the Dome was that the Forman family owned the land that the Dome and B of A and Wells Fargo buildings sit on. And was able to turn the project into a real winner. During the last years UA operated the Egyptian Theatre. They had on the planning stage a new complex for that block. They were to keep the original house with the large D-150 screen and build a 8 to 10 screen complex next door. But the city zoning turned it down and UA trashed the theatre, by turning it into a budget house and then dumping it. The National sits on a large piece of land and the landlord knows. The zoning in that area is the biggest problem, you can’t add screens with a new complex. If Santa Monica and Century City had not became the new movie going areas on the westside and if Mann still had the 5 mile clearance. The National would be a moneymaker. So with the studios opening films on so many screens in all these areas around the National. The National’s slice of the profit pie is so much smaller now.
I second the notion of 70mm revivals here. I saw Titanic here in 70mm – with all the masking expanded to full capacity (unlike Chinese)! Truly an epic experience!