I remember waiting on line for hours at the National to see The Exorcist with friends from my dorm at UCLA…I remember going to the National on a very rainy weekend afternoon (circa 1977-78) and seeing a matinee of The Gauntlet with maybe a dozen or so people in the audience. At the time, it felt to me like the world’s largest private screening room. I agree with Jason, above. If they had made the National into an art-house, it would have had no competition in Westwood. I’ll hate to see them tear it down. Another one bites the dust indeed.
I can tell you two premieres I went to at the National, in order of the ridiculous to the sublime:
Hudson Hawk (where I met James Coburn in the upstairs lobby) and The Hours.
I remember waiting on line for hours at the National to see The Exorcist with friends from my dorm at UCLA…I remember going to the National on a very rainy weekend afternoon (circa 1977-78) and seeing a matinee of The Gauntlet with maybe a dozen or so people in the audience. At the time, it felt to me like the world’s largest private screening room. I agree with Jason, above. If they had made the National into an art-house, it would have had no competition in Westwood. I’ll hate to see them tear it down. Another one bites the dust indeed.