ART FILMS COMING TO VALLEY COMPLEX : WOODLAND HILLS THEATER TAPS TREND.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

United Artists will show art films, such as ``Kolya'' and ``Kama Sutra,'' at its Woodland Hills theater, the company said Monday, reflecting the growing popularity of independent features.

The UA Woodland Hills six-plex will devote as many as four of its screens to such fare as foreign-language films and independent features, while continuing to show mainstream releases in its other auditoriums. The Canoga Avenue location competes with two nearby complexes for mainstream movies - the four-screen Pacific Theaters' Topanga and the 16-screen AMC Promenade, which opened a year ago.

``We believe we're offering a sensible alternative for patrons who are tired of traveling over the hill to the Westside to see specialized films,'' said John Lambert, specialized film buyer for the Denver-based UA chain.

Over the past two years, the Woodland Hills UA theater has usually allocated one screen to specialized fare. Lambert said about 10 percent of the 390 UA Theaters nationwide have expanded bookings of art films amid the successes of such movies as ``Il Postino,'' ``Sense and Sensibility,'' ``The English Patient,'' ``Shine'' and ``Fargo.''

The latter trio won a dozen Academy Awards between them last month.

``We've really seen a maturation of the market for specialty films over the last two years with the Academy Awards typifying that trend,'' Lambert said. ``People are starting to look for films that are refreshing and challenging rather than a thrill ride.''

Miramax's ``The English Patient'' is nearing $70 million after six months in domestic release, Fine Line's ``Shine'' is at $37 million and Gramercy's ``Fargo'' has topped $24 million.

The success of such films, made outside the traditional studio system, has prompted an expansion of such venues. For example, a two-screen theater in Westlake Village that closed in November when a multiplex opened a few blocks away reopened a month ago as an art house and was renamed the Regent Westlake.

Additionally, Reading Entertainment announced plans for an art multiplex in Houston, and a published report in Daily Variety said Robert Redford's Sundance Institute was drawing plans for multiplexes that would screen art films in major U.S. cities.

Richard Manly, a frequent moviegoer and Altadena resident, said he welcomes the coming of art films to multiplexes. ``If I'm planning to see `Fargo' and get there late, I'm only in the mood for that kind of film, and I'm probably not going to see something like `Liar Liar,' '' he said.

Bert Manzari, head buyer at Los Angeles-based Landmark Entertainment, said of the expansion, ``The audience that has been created for art films is clearly growing, but it has to be nurtured carefully. A lot of things need to be done to make those kind of movies into commercial successes.''

Such tactics at Landmark - the nation's most successful art house circuit with 138 screens - include maintaining mailing lists, contests and other promotions. ``What we do is very labor intensive,'' Manzari said. ``The big circuits will dabble in art films, but their business is not to be in this business.''

Only one other movie theater in the Valley plays art-house films regularly: Laemmle's Town Center in Encino. It is one of eight Laemmles in the L.A. area.