Bon Voyages by MATTHEW HAYS French director Emmanuel Finkiel spent years as an assistant director before directing his first film in '95. His list of mentors include Krysztof Kieslowski, Bertrand Tavernier and Jean-Luc Godard--not a shabby group of people to learn from, by anyone's standards. And the lessons have stuck. This week, Voyages, the first feature-length film by Finkiel, opens at Cinéma du Parc. It's an insightful, emotional film about three Jewish women who are all somehow linked by memories of the Holocaust. Finkiel artfully weaves the three women's stories and perhaps one of the most noteworthy elements of the film is its casting. A full one third of the film is carried by Esther Gorintin, an 85-year-old woman who'd never acted prior to making this movie. Voyages rightly received glowing reviews when it opened in its original French version earlier this year. This Friday, Oct. 20, it opens with English subtitles at the Parc. Don't miss it. In what has to be one of the strangest films of the year, Rats & Rabbits, a motley group of citizens struggle their way through the aftermath of their mayor's assassination. Director Lewis Furey composes his gang of nutbars well, as they fight, bicker and fornicate throughout the film. Furey, a veteran Quebec musician who also wrote the music for the Montreal cult classic The Rubber Gun, has adapted the play Beyond Mozambique, by George Walker. The results are mixed; much of the dialogue is utterly hilarious, but things do begin to wear a wee bit thin after the one-hour mark. Opens Friday, Oct. 20. The Sirk-Fassbinder joint retrospective continues this week at the Goethe-Institut. Especially worth catching is Written on the Wind, Sirk's elegant bit of kitsch about a playboy (Robert Stack) who becomes obsessed with his virility after being told he can't impregnate his wife, Lauren Bacall. This is truly a landmark melodrama, shot entirely in vivid Technicolor. Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone costar as reliable friend and evil, conniving bitch, respectively. See repertory listings for showtimes. So, The Exorcist has shocked just about everyone--including Warner Bros., the studio that's rereleased it--with its enduring popularity (the film was no. two on the box-office charts for its first two weeks running in the U.S.). And the studios, never adverse to the idea of jumping on bandwagons, will undoubtedly be frantically searching through their vaults for child-as-evil horror movies to rerelease in the hopes of cashing in on the craze. Here are my recommended candidates: The Omen and Damien: The Omen 2 These films were both extremely creepy, with unwitting adoptive parents trying, initially, to protect their offspring, only to learn (too late, of course) that he's the spawn of Satan himself. Skip the third one--The Final Conflict--in which a grown-up Damien (Sam Neill!) runs for U.S. President. And Patty McCormick's nasty little girl in The Bad Seed is the original cinematic reason for passing on procreation. Nancy Kelly is perfect as the beleaguered mom. : COMMENTS: mhays@mtl-mirror.com