`WOMEN'S MOVIE' GENRE RE-EMERGING.

Byline: Robert Bianco Special to the Daily News

Could the woman's movie be making a comeback?

Once a mainstay of the studio system, the old-time, emotion-laden star vehicle ``woman's movie'' has been hard to find on the big screen. Such movies are now usually either relegated to TV or dismissed derisively as ``chick flicks.'' (This leaves one to ponder what the male equivalent might be for a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.)

The closest we get these days is the ``date movie,'' which is a film, usually a comedy, that emphasizes romance over action. Both genres are primarily aimed at women, but where the ``date movie'' encourages liaisons, the ``woman's movie'' either discourages them or is ambivalent about them. The traditional woman's picture assumed that women were smarter and stronger than men, and had to learn to make do without them, or at best, around them.

The genre created many careers and prolonged many others, before tastes and economics changed and the genre died. Nothing that ever made money, however, dies for good. The woman's movie is finally on its way back, thanks to ``The Bridges of Madison County'' and ``Waiting to Exhale.''

Though it may share a title with Robert James Waller's best seller, ``Bridges'' (1995, Warner; priced for rental) owes much more to Bette Davis' classic ``Now, Voyager'' than it does to any novel. In fact, it was a hit precisely because director and star Clint Eastwood dumped the book's male fixation and turned the movie over to Meryl Streep - a ``Voyager'' move that showed a mix of savvy, confidence and generosity rare among men in any business.

Like ``Voyager,'' this revised ``Bridges'' is the story of a frumpy, withdrawn, too-smart-for-the-room woman who blossoms under the attention of an unavailable man. Like ``Voyager,'' it's set in the past, since it's hard to come up with any modern plot complication that would stop an unhappy spouse from walking out.

And like ``Voyager,'' any doubts about the material are overcome by the female star's masterful performance. At its heart, this material may be dishonest - it allows the wife to have her affair and her marriage and be better for both - but there's nothing dishonest about Streep's performance, and she carries you in her wake.

If the surprise in ``Bridges'' was its emotional power, the surprise in ``Exhale'' (1995, FoxVideo; $19.98) was its box-office clout. Apparently the studios didn't realize black women might be waiting for a movie that presented them as something other than chattel to be beaten, bought or rented. As the teen-agers for whom most movies are made these days might say: ``Duh.''

What this adaptation of Terry McMillan's best seller gave that audience is four beautiful, powerful women - Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon - beset by a world of weak men. With no men on the horizon to show them the respect they deserve, they take comfort in each other. Their witty, easy byplay is what holds this episodic film together.

Even more than most women's pictures, ``Exhale'' is a tough ride for men. (Its attitude toward black men in particular is as bitter as only a family dispute can be.) I wouldn't say men get bashed, but they do get pushed around a bit.

At any rate, for you women who find ``Bridges'' and ``Exhale'' empowering, here are three others to rent as well. And if the men in your life don't like it, remind them that you sat through ``Die Hard III.''

``Now, Voyager'' (1942, MGM/UA; $19.95): In this film, Davis gives up the moon for the stars. This time around, ignore the changed social mores and notice instead the changed health codes: Everybody in ``Voyager'' smokes. Everywhere. Davis even smokes through a veil, which can't be easy.

``Random Harvest'' (1942, MGM/UA; $19.98): The late Greer Garson was one of the few actresses who could make virtue attractive, even for cynical modern audiences. That's no small achievement; the once near-perfect balance of ``Gone With the Wind'' is thrown off today by our irrepressible urge to strangle Melanie.

``Stella Dallas'' (1937, Sultan; $14.98): This story of maternal self-sacrifice - from the same author who wrote ``Now, Voyager'' - is probably the greatest weepy of them all, thanks to star Barbara Stanwyck. Like Streep, she makes you believe in the character, despite your better judgment.

Elsewhere on video:

As male compensation, MGM/UA is re-releasing all five ``Rocky'' movies for $9.98 each or as a boxed set for $39.92. Though it's more violent than is typical for the genre, if you stretch things, the first ``Rocky'' could count as a date movie. The other four count as torture.

``The Aristocats'' (1970, Disney; $26.99): The enjoyable, if not-quite-classic Disney cartoon about a French family of cats put in danger by an unexpected inheritance. It features the voices of Eva Gabor, Phil Harris, Scatman Crothers, Paul Winchell and Nancy Kulp.

``Steal Big, Steal Little'' (1995, HBO; priced for rental): Andy Garcia plays identical twins fighting for the family farm. I saw it in bits and pieces, without sound, on an airplane. While I can't say for sure, my guess is that's the best way to see it.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: ``The Bridges of Madison County'' was a hit precisel y because director and star Clint Eastwood dumped the book's male fixation and turned the movie over to Meryl Streep.