Let the credits roll

But how will it end? Will he ride off into the sunset on a motorbike? Will it turn out it was all a dream? No one knows but one thing’s certain – there’s going to be a sequel.

Barrenechea describes managing the iconic Brighton cinema (and latterly its sister, Duke’s@Komedia) as the best job he’s ever had. “It’s like being Santa Claus in the North Pole – no one can believe I get to do this all week!”

But when his replacement is found, he will start work as project development manager for Dukes’ owners Picturehouse Cinemas, which runs 21 UK arthouse cinemas.

As a result of last year’s Cineworld buyout of Picturehouse, there are plans to increase that portfolio – and Barrenechea will lead the way in building and buying new sites. He’s coy on the details but jokes that like firefighters – Superman, surely? – Picturehouse will go “wherever it’s needed”.

It’s a bittersweet period for the native New Yorker, who has worked hard to keep the Duke Of York’s – Britain’s oldest cinema – relevant in the 21st century. “We didn’t want to be a cinema that just showed films,” he explains.

“Smaller cinemas can’t survive if that’s all they do.”

During his time, the cinema has introduced Silver Screen for the over-60s, The Big Scream for the under-ones (or more accurately, their parents), autism-friendly screenings, and Toddler Time for preschool children.

There are regular Q&As with cinema heavyweights such as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, special promotions for blockbusters like The Dark Knight, gigs by bands including The Kills and British Sea Power… “There’s a stereotype of arthouse cinema audiences being solely middle-class wine-drinkers but we’ve always set out to be a cinema for everyone.”

Duke’s @ Komedia, which opened last year in the Gardner Street arts venue, has brought the cinema even closer to the heart of the city, attracting new audiences who found Preston Circus too much of a trek.

But fear not, the old Duke’s – “Don’t call it that,” says Barrenechea with a pained expression, “She’s the gorgeous duchess!” – is still going strong.

“People continue to be incredibly fond of it and are still going there in droves. Duke’s @ Komedia has more facilities but the original Duke’s has glamour.”

Since the Cineworld takeover, the cinema has fielded various accusations of selling out” – there are more adverts than there used to be; they are showing films they would never have shown previously.

Barrenechea is bemused.

“People seem to be noticing things that were always there and attributing these ‘changes’ to the merger.” For the record, there are no more ads now than there ever were and as for a purported rise in “populist”

films: “We’ve always played blockbusters! We just play movies we think our customers want to see and something like The Dark Knight trilogy is a big, big movie but it’s also smart and well-made.”

Barrenechea watches two or three films a week – “More than average but far less than lots of the people who work here.”As his workload has increased, it’s become harder to find the time but he loved Black Fish, a documentary about the dangers of keeping killer whales in captivity, and Brighton director Ben Wheatley’s Civil War thriller A Field In England.

“Ben Wheatley is one of the most exciting film-makers the UK has ever seen,” he gushes.

“It’s so good to come across someone who doesn’t fit any sort of mould. Everything he does is entirely his own.”

Wheatley is set to interview Nicholas Roeg – another director who, through films including Performance and Don’t Look Now, also refused to be pigeonholed – in a forthcoming Duke’s event and Barrenechea is clearly thrilled. “Having them both on the same stage! It’s going to be…wow.”

When he asks what I’ve seen at the cinema recently, I’m ashamed to admit I’ve mainly been using online film streaming sites. I assume this is anathema to a cinema manager but Barrenechea is breezy. “I think streaming services are great – the more people watching movies the better, whatever the context.

I don’t think it does cinema any harm at all – they’re totally different experiences. If you’re sitting at home watching Netflix it’s because you want to be at home. But if you want to make an evening of it, you come out with friends or your partner, catch a film, have a drink. I don’t think people will stop wanting to do that any more than people will stop going to the comedy club at Komedia just because there’s loads of comedy on TV now.”

He’s enthusiastic too about the rise of “event cinema”, which started with live screenings of major opera, theatre and ballet shows, and has recently extended to include art exhibitions such as the Royal Academy’s Manet show and the V&A’s David Bowie exhibition.

Going to a cinema to watch a filmed tour of an art exhibition might sound peculiar but he points out it’s actually rather sensible. “You can’t even get tickets for most of these shows and if you do, your view is inevitably blocked by a group of students on a school trip.

The best bits of galleries are when you’re alone and can spend as much time as you want looking at the exhibits and this is the next closest thing to that.”

I’m curious about the flipside of all this enthusiasm – Barrenechea’s cinematic bugbears – but he won’t be drawn.

“I like all genres, even musicals, as long as they’re good films.” And he looks positively scandalised when asked which actors he thinks are overrated.

“I’m in the business!” he says, eyes widened in mock-horror.

“I can’t be talking bad about people!” How about Ryan Gosling, I suggest. Does he “get” his appeal? “Yeah! Don’t you? He’s hot!” He laughs.

“There are two sides to him, he’s a heart-throb but he’s also a good actor who’s made some great films. OK, Crazy Stupid Love wasn’t one of them. But The Place Beyond The Pines is brilliant.”

The closest he’s prepared to come to criticism is alluding to it. “I did see The World’s End the other day,” he says, smiling slyly. “I thought that was… good.” He laughs and points to my Dictaphone. “Is this thing still on?”

Cinema has been a part of Barrenechea’s life since he was a child. One of his current hobby horses is a project to save a cinema in Esteli, a town in Nicaragua, Central America, where he went to high school (his mother ran an arts college there). The singlescreen cinema was the place he first saw David Lynch’s Blue Velvet – “and loads of other age-inappropriate stuff”– and when he heard it was to be demolished to make way for a supermarket, he launched a campaign to save it that was backed by high-profile names from Ken Loach to Alex Cox.

“We managed to save it from closing but the next step is to refurbish and reopen it.”A special screening of Splendor, a 1989 Italian film about a singlescreen cinema in danger of closing down, will take place later this month to raise funds.

“I adore cinema,”Barrenechea concludes. “It’s part of me and I think it always will be.”  What, then, of the really important question – who will play him in the inevitable film of his life?

He doesn’t miss a beat: “Oh, Ryan Gosling definitely. What?”

*Splendor is at the Duke Of York’s Picturehouse at 6pm today (Sunday, Aug 18). For full details of all screenings visit picturehouses.co.uk