Brothers Focus on Art House Fare at Camarillo Cinema

CAMARILLO — A pair of multiplexes knocked out Paseo Camarillo Cinemas, but a pair of brothers with a passion for art films have brought it back to life.

Lyndon and Michael Golin’s art house doesn’t attract the kind of crowds you see at places like Edwards Camarillo Palace 12 Cinemas or Century 16 Cinemas in Ventura. But for those who prefer watching a film that traces the life of a violin to seeing the latest star-studded action-packed thriller, it has become the only refuge. With the closure of the Regent Westlake this summer, the Paseo is now the only place in the county to see current independent and foreign films.

“I can’t find these types of films anywhere else close to us,” regular patron Rene Michels of Oxnard said last week, before a screening of “Run Lola Run.”

Paseo Camarillo once reigned supreme as Camarillo’s only theater from 1981 until December 1994. But it was done in by the opening of Edwards’ mega-movie house across Highway 101 and the subsequent arrival of United Artists Camarillo 11. It struggled for a while as a second-run theater, then closed.

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The Paseo’s projectors hadn’t run in two months when the Golins took over in 1996. Lyndon is a former distributor for MGM and Universal; Michael owns a theater-equipment repair business. The brothers also run Movies @ the Esplanade, a former second-run theater they bought in May and turned into Oxnard’s only first-run movie house.

The Golins renovated the Paseo Camarillo and featured second-run movies for almost a year. Then, heartened by a positive response to a couple of art films they tried, the movie buffs switched to showing all foreign and independent movies, the kind of films they like. They starting selling biscotti and specialty coffees and banished nachos and hot dogs. They hung local art on the walls.

Average weekly attendance has doubled from the time the Golins took over, reaching about 2,000.

Once the Golins found their audience, an over-30 crowd that is half senior citizens and mostly from outside Camarillo, they kept in touch. They started a mailing list that now includes 850 addresses from Malibu to Santa Barbara and send out quarterly film updates. An additional 100 people receive weekly e-mail messages. For many of these patrons, the Paseo’s films are must-see theater.

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“A lot of people come see every movie we play,” Lyndon said. “Whatever we bring in, they come to see it, no matter how good or how bad.”

The Golins also do target marketing and special events. If, for example, they plan to show a Latino or French film, they notify teachers and community groups that might be interested. Last year they had an art show to promote a film called “Artemisia,” about a Renaissance woman artist, and they will host the second annual Channel Islands Indie Film & Video Festival Nov. 10-14.

Knowing that “The Blair Witch Project” would be hot, the brothers pulled out all the stops on promoting the creepy independent film that became the movie event of the summer. They ran radio spots, which they rarely do, and got a radio station to broadcast from the theater.

The response blew the brothers away. When the “Blair Witch Project” opened July 30, the Paseo was suddenly teeming with people.

The brothers went from showing it on two screens to three the first night. They started shows hourly from noon to midnight and sold out every one all weekend, even though the movie was playing at several other places in the county. The Paseo drew 6,000 people that weekend for “Blair Witch,” three times the previous house record under the Golins.

“We turned away a lot of people, too,” Lyndon said. “It was just a sea of people.”

The “Blair Witch” crowds tapered off after a couple of weeks, and the movie was pulled last week. Though it set the weekend record, other films have brought in more money. “Life Is Beautiful,” “Shall We Dance” and “Mrs. Brown” each ran for up to 25 weeks. “The Red Violin” is in its 12th week and looks like it will have a long run as well, the Golins say.

Films with staying power are the ones that will keep the Paseo Camarillo going. A little competition wouldn’t hurt, either, the brothers say. The Regent Westlake closed earlier this summer and “will reopen with a totally new concept,” said Regent spokeswoman Carolyn Broner. Earlier this month an art house called Backlot Theater opened in Thousand Oaks, but it will mainly show old movies.

If more theaters show independent films, Lyndon said, more of those films will be made. And that’s good for business.

“‘The good news is there are more and more of these theaters opening up,” he said. “The odds are getting better.”