Santa Barbara Film Festival: It’s a Hit : Movies: Of 27 screenings, 23 have been sold out. The 10-day festival continues through Sunday afternoon’s finale, Luc Besson’s ‘La Femme Nikita.’

The first weekend’s tally came in and there was a glow of satisfaction in the office of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival: 23 of the 27 screenings sold out, with a strong interest shown in the remaining festival fare.

Friday’s opening film was “The Josephine Baker Story,” an HBO film hitting the small screen this Saturday. But it wasn’t indicative of the hidden treasures in the schedule, including the stylistically provocative Hungarian film “Little but Tough” and the poignant British film “Truly, Madly, Deeply.”

Of the films so far, none was quite so bizarre as Adam Rifkin’s “The Dark Backward,” a clever tragicomedy which had its world premiere late Saturday night. The grimy, hopeless and darkly funny world created by Rifkin is the polar opposite from the clean streets of Santa Barbara.

With an eccentric atmosphere reminiscent of “Eraserhead,” “Pink Flamingos” and “Brazil,” Rifkin creates a compellingly weird urban netherworld. In it, Judd Nelson plays Marty Mart, that peculiar species--the bad stand-up comic who wouldn’t die. He’s hunched-over, with oily hair and improbable dreams of glory fueled by a manic friend and fellow garbage man Gus (Bill Paxton), who grabs an accordion and latches onto his pal’s path to fame.

That path is lined with such grotesqueries as the arm growing out the hero’s back, and Wayne Newton in a third lead role as a slimy agent. Also featured are Lara Flynn Boyle and cameos by James Caan as a crazed doctor and Rob Lowe as a weaselly talent scout.

Rifkin had his debut as a writer-director with “Never on Tuesday” and has worked on other script projects. None, though, were as dear to his heart as “The Dark Backward,” which he wrote six years ago at age 19. Producer Brad Wyman read the script and came into the picture, and the two began fighting to get the film made. “We’ve always been underdogs,” Wyman said. “No one’s ever wanted the movie to be made. I’ve got to say, it came out pretty much the way we planned it.”

“My main influences in life have been cartoons, Dr. Suess, Monty Python and things like that,” Rifkin says. “I’ve always had an appreciation for the odd. I love Dali, as far as artists go, I love Fellini as far as moviemakers go, but by the same token, I love Frank Capra movies.”

By virtue of its sheer oddity, “The Dark Backwards” is headed for the cult film market, but Rifkin feels that, despite the film’s “unusual and assaulting imagery,” it deals with “basic emotions that people can relate to.”

The 10-day festival continues through Sunday afternoon’s closing film, Luc Besson’s “La Femme Nikita.” Among the highlights are “Evening With” tributes to Dean Stockwell and Kim Novak, on Friday and Saturday, respectively.