Cinema falling apart

Interviewed at the Beirut Film Festival, the great Francis Ford Coppola was pessimistic about the movie industry: «The cinema as we know it is falling apart.»

Coppola's opinion on the subject is not reassuring: «It's a period of incredible change. We used to think of six, seven big film companies. Every one of them is under great stress now. Probably two or three will go out of business and the others will just make certain kind of films like 'Harry Potter' -- basically trying to make 'Star Wars' over and over again, because it's a business.»

«Cinema is losing the public's interest, because there is so much it has to compete with to get people's time. The profusion of leisure activities; the availability of movies on copied DVD and on the Internet; and news becoming entertainment are reshaping the industry.»

The maker of «Apocalypse Now», «Rumble Fish» and the «Godfather» trilogy summed up: «I think the cinema is going to live off into something more related to a live performance in which the filmmaker is there, like the conductor of an opera used to be. Cinema can be interactive, every night it can be a little different.»