Can't Find That Film? Home Film Festival Rents Videos By Mail

So many film classics. So few video stores that carry them.

It's getting harder and harder to find anything that isn't recent and American at your local ``Top 40''-oriented video outlet. In order to find a decent selection of foreign films and oldies, it's almost necessary to live on Capitol Hill or in the University District, or to travel to Issaquah, where City Lights Video maintains perhaps the most comprehensive selection of videos-for-rent on the Eastside.

If you don't live in those areas or can't get to them, however, there are a couple of outstanding mail-order alternatives. And you don't have to come up with a week's salary to buy the film you want. Both companies specialize in renting cassettes for a reasonable fee.

Home Film Festival, a five-year-old Pennsylvania outfit that lists ``1,200 of the world's greatest movies for rent through the mail,'' includes everything from ``Aguirre, Wrath of God'' to ``Sherman's March'' to ``Brideshead Revisited.'' The company now claims 10,000 American members - at least one of whom has cassettes delivered to him by mule in the Grand Canyon.

Club membership is $25 and includes one free rental. Rental rates start at $3.50, plus round-trip postage by UPS or mail - which ranges from $2.80 to $8.60, depending on your location and the number of tapes you order.

Members may order by using a toll-free line, 1-800-258-3456, from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays (that's Seattle time). If you call before noon, your order will be shipped the same day. For a catalog, write to Home Film Festival, P.O. Box 2032, Scranton, PA 18501-9952.

Convenient as H.F.F. is, it tends to rely on a limited number of well-known distributors for its selections. This helps to guarantee the quality of the cassettes, but you may not find everything you're looking for in its catalog.

H.F.F. lists a dozen Fellini classics, but not his 1958 Academy Award winner, ``The Nights of Cabiria,'' which many critics (including yours truly) regard as his finest achievement. Because of legal entanglements, ``Cabiria'' does not yet have a promiment American cassette distributor. You also won't find R.W. Fassbinder's ``Fox and His Friends'' or Peter Watkins' Oscar-winning ``The War Game'' or Michelangelo Antonioni's ``Red Desert'' through H.F.F.

However, all of these are available for rent through Facets Multimedia, an adventurous Chicago company that carries many films that can't be found through other video sources. It stocks 11,000 titles. Facets charges $20 for memberships and includes two free rentals for that price. Subsequent rentals are $10 per tape, including one-way UPS shipping.

Facets' toll-free number is 1-800-331-6197. For a free sampler catalog, write to Facets Video, 1517 West Fullerton Ave., Chicago, IL 60614.

Video notes: August will be David Lynch month, with ``Twin Peaks'' returning to network television and his Cannes Grand Prize winner, ``Wild at Heart,'' opening Aug. 17 in theaters. On Aug. 29, Warner Home Video will release Lynch's wide-screen ``Blue Velvet'' in ``letterbox'' format on LaserDisc for $29.98. On the same day, Warner Reprise Video has scheduled the cassette release of ``David Lynch/Angelo Badalamenti, Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken-Hearted, Featuring Julie Cruise,'' a $19.98 cassette that features a performance art collaboration between Lynch, Badalamenti and Cruise, who all worked on the music for ``Twin Peaks'' and ``Blue Velvet'' . . . Several video dates for recent movies have been announced for the fall. ``House Party'' arrives Sept. 5, ``Cry Baby'' and ``Crazy People'' Sept. 13, ``Tales From the Darkside'' Oct. 4 and ``The Hunt For Red October'' Oct. 25.

Video Watch by John Hartl appears Sundays in Arts & Entertainment. You can get more video information by calling the Seattle Times' 24-hour free service Infoline. Call 464-2000 from any touch-tone telephone and when instructed, enter the category number 0911 to reach the Video Hotline. You may replay all information by pressing ``R'' (7); back up to previous information by pressing ``B'' (2); and jump over over current information by pressing ``J'' (5).

NEW VIDEOS in stores this week:

Today - ``The Nice Neighbor,'' ``Hungarian Rhapsody,'' Michael Cacoyannis' ``A Matter of Dignity.''

Monday - Peter Matthiessen in ``Lost Man's River.''

Wednesday - Jessica Lange in ``Men Don't Leave,'' Sandra Dee in ``A Summer Place,'' Troy Donahue in ``Palm Springs Weekend,'' Veronica Lake in ``I Married a Witch,'' Julie Andrews in ``S.O.B.,'' Jack Benny in ``To Be or Not to Be,'' Roddy McDowall in ``Lassie Come Home,'' Chuck Connors in ``Flipper,'' Christina Applegate in ``Streets,'' John Ericson in ``Primary Target,'' Whoopi Goldberg in ``Homer and Eddie.''

Thursday - Adam West in ``Mad About You,'' Bruce Ly in ``Chinatown Connection.''