For hardcore artsies, there really hasn't been much question about which video outlet leads the pack in Montreal. La Boite Noire, at two locations, offers an excellent range of films. If you're interested in foreign fare, art films and movies for those more cerebral moments in your life, this is the place to peruse. And the shop's collection has been synopsized for your convenience in their annually published Guide Vidéo + DVD 2001, available this week at both outlets. The book is extremely well organized and makes life a heckuvalot easier. Just recall the last time you and your video-viewing companion were debating what to watch: will it be a gratuitous Chucky sequel or a Holocaust documentary? Now you can peruse the various titles and decide before you hit Boite Noire, making everyone's life much simpler.

The book does point up a horrendous deficiency in Boite Noire's classy collection of classics, however. There is no copy of the disaster sequel Airport '75 at either shop. What the hell's going on? That's the movie where the front of a 747 is taken off by a small plane, leaving stewardess Karen Black to try and land the thing on her own. Luckily, Charlton Heston is dangled from a high wire by another plane and boards the seemingly doomed flight to see if he can help. How can Boite Noire not carry this movie and have any self respect left? :

--Matthew Hays