Santa Barbara Film Festival: Modest but Coming of Age : Movies: A solid and varied film lineup, scenic ocean setting and a variety of attractions offer a regional paradise for film buffs.

Compared to the programs of the long-established festivals in Cannes, New York and Toronto, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is strictly junior varsity. But when it comes to setting, movie-going convenience and organizational good will, you need go no further. This 5-year-old festival, almost contained on beautiful State Street just blocks from the Pacific Ocean, is becoming a regional paradise for film fans.

The 10-day event, which opened Friday with a screening of Coline Serreau’s “Mama, There’s a Man in Your Bed” at the 65-year-old Granada movie palace, includes the showing of 80 movies at 15 downtown theaters, plus a dozen special events at which both local and imported film makers and stars rub elbows with moviegoers.

Out-of-towners who reserved rooms off State Street before the hotels sold out need comfortable shoes, a good attitude and nothing else; the theaters are all within walking distance, with restaurants, art galleries and other amiable distractions in between. The organizers have used every available space for their non-film attractions, even taking over the fine old Bank of Montecito for the opening night party.

But the future of any festival is built on the strength of its film schedule and for all its local popularity, Santa Barbara has gotten off to a very modest start. Previous programs have been heavy on easily arranged retrospectives and other festivals’ leftovers and light on premieres and themes of substance. As a result, it hasn’t made many serious film buffs’ festival “must” list.

And while the town’s celebrity residents have lent support to the festival, it’s been hard for the organizers to get many of them to actually participate. Santa Barbaran Jane Seymour, who introduced Serreau’s film to the opening night audience, said this is the first year she has been in town when the festival was under way.

Still, the Santa Barbara festival is showing perceptible growth in its programming and 16 of the 25 opening weekend events this year were sold out, marking a 100% increase over 1989’s festival. Festival publicity director Sheila Barr said that merchants reported twice as much revenue over last year’s opening weekend and most hotels and motels had no vacancies.

Opening night ticket-holders were not disappointed. Serreau’s “Mama, There’s a Man in Your Bed,” a funny, romantic story about a Paris yogurt mogul (Daniel Auteuil) whose shattered career is rebuilt with the help his company’s graveyard-shift cleaning woman (Firmine Richard, was a huge hit, as were Auteuil and Serreau at the post-screening party.

Saturday’s hottest ticket was Chuck Workman’s new documentary “Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol,” but the sleepers were Nick Broomfield’s “Diamond Skulls” and Mike Hodges’ “Black Rainbow.” All three films were having their U.S. premieres.

With his passion for monosyllabic answers, Andy Warhol was an interviewer’s nightmare who deliberately cultivated a passive, enigmatic image. Workman, whose exhilarating tribute to the movies, “Precious Images,” won him an Academy Award a few years ago, interviewed countless people, but Warhol’s essence--if he had one--seems to have eluded the film maker. Neither family nor friends, including longtime Warhol associates Viva and Gerard Malanga , give us a clear idea of what the man was really like.

“Diamond Skulls,” which marks the fictional feature debut of Broomfield, a noted documentarian, is a steamy, stylish account of an English nobleman (Gabriel Byrne) whose intense jealousy over his devoted but dazzlingly sexy wife (Amanda Donohoe) becomes the basis for a chilling commentary on a ruling class hypocritically willing to close ranks in the face of a needless killing.

At a party after the screening, Broomfield acknowledged that his film was inspired, though not in its plot, by the notorious Lord Lucan incident, adding that he did not want his film to be “spot on” for fear of lawsuits. Ironically, not five minutes later--and not five feet away--Jeffrey Taylor, co-executive producer of “A Handful of Dust,” remarked that he has a film about Lucan on his schedule.

Except for the all-out experimental, the festival, under artistic director Phyllis de Picciotto, does offer a considerable range of films.

Although out-of-towners may have trouble finding a place to stay, there’s still plenty to see, especially during the festival’s concluding weekend, which brings the hilarious romantic comedy “The Tall Guy” with Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson and the world premiere of John Waters’ latest, “Cry Baby,”.