Francis Ford Coppola Instagram – In honor of #NationalCinemaDay … There’s no doubt in my mind that the thrill of going to the cinema is to be in a large theater in the midst of the audience, being a part of it.  The bigger the audience, the better, because the audience response is a form of togetherness that’s thousands of years old.   When I was young, I would go with my older brother to a local theater called the Center Theater, which had the quote emblazened on the terrazo floor:   “Home of Proven Hits.”  It was fantastic; the movies that I saw there were films from all around the world, the films of Alexander Korda, the films from Italy, and Hollywood.  Of course, I had a big brother to guide me, but I will never forget those experiences.  It’s where I saw such classics as “The Thief of Bagdad,” Four Feathers” and “The Shape of Things to Come” other movies have haunted and obsessed me all my life.  I would have to say this was all because of my wonderful big brother August, five years older than me, and interested in all forms of literature, but especially great movies.  Also in my hometown now, in the Napa Valley, we have a theater called The Cameo, which is a beautiful single-venue theater (apparently the oldest continuing operating single-venue theater in America having  opened in 1913 and originally known as the Liberty. Its name was later changed to Roxy and after a beautiful remodeling job, reduced the seating capacity and turned it into a little jewel box now known as Cameo Cinema. @cameocinema_napavalley  There’s no doubt in my mind that the movie theater experience as a place to thrill to and enjoy great cinema is a central part of the community, and that idea of replacing that with any form of ‘Home Video’ or even the notion of dividing these theaters into multiplexes which are basically fast-food restaurants with a sideline of showing movies is not what I think the exciting future of MOVIE-GOING will be. -Francis Coppola