VIDEO PICKS FOR ALL MOODS ON NEW YEAR'S.

Byline: Carrie Rickey Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

You can divide the world into two persuasions - and we don't mean male and female.

Under the superstition that whatever they're doing Dec. 31 sets the tone for the next 365 days, those of the ritualistic persuasion believe in celebrating their brains out on New Year's Eve.

The anti-festive faction believes that it's a night like any other - except for the irritating fact that there are a lot of jerks running around tooting noisemakers and toting jeroboams.

What's paradoxical is that both are absolutely right.

The task at hand, of course, is to plan an evening that satisfies both persuasions, for naturally, if you're the ritualistic type, your spouse or lover or best chum or child recommends that you make it an early night for New Year's. And although you've doubtless struck many compromises in the past, you know as well as we do that no matter how sparkling the bubbly and the wordplay, the taste of champagne and Scrabble on New Year's Eve is inevitably flat.

So why not rent a mood movie for New Year's Eve? You see, this allows the party guy or gal to do something special, to the extent of treating the screen as a kind of video noisemaker. And it enables New Year's misanthropes to slump in front of the TV as though it were any other night.

Two words of advice, however. To the celebrator: Do not allow the misanthrope to select the film, lest he or she return with ``Cannibal Holocaust.'' To the misanthrope: Before letting the celebratory type go to the video supermarket to rent a film, make it plain that you will not put up with ``Ocean's Eleven'' (1960) - even though it does take place in Vegas on New Year's Eve.

For some, there are few better ways to celebrate New Year's Eve than by watching Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford simultaneously rob the five largest casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

For others wondering about how to choose an appropriate film, well, just match your emotional situation to the picture's. While this selection is optimistic enough to appeal to any celebrator, it is also laced with enough pessimism about life, love and human nature to satisfy the most discerning misanthrope.

``The Apartment'' (1960). Particularly recommended for all bachelors and also any bachelorette who has ever had an affair with a married man. Jack Lemmon stars as an insurance actuary who weasels his way into the executive suite by lending other execs the key to his apartment so they can make whoopee with their mistresses. Shirley MacLaine is the kewpie carrying on with Lemmon's boss, Fred MacMurray. OK, there's a suicide attempt on Christmas Eve, and yeah, our hero quits his job on New Year's Eve, but he ends up hosting the best party in town.

``Bachelor Mother'' (1939). Particularly recommended for single parents. After getting pink-slipped on Christmas Eve, shop clerk Ginger Rogers goes home, discovers an abandoned baby on her doorstep, and finds that everyone from the foundling-home nurses to her billionaire boss (David Niven) believes that it's really her kid. Amid other holiday lunacy, Niven insists that Rogers be his date for a soigne New Year's Eve supper, and both learn how to diaper a newborn while dressing to the nines.

``Bell, Book and Candle'' (1958). Particularly recommended for witches, warlocks and nonbelievers. Kim Novak is a witch. Jack Lemmon is her brother, the warlock. Pyewacket is her cat. James Stewart is the book publisher she utterly bewitches during a holiday season. Ernie Kovacs is his whacked-out, best-selling author. Many candles are lit, incantations made and enchantments cast - particularly over the audience. Lemmon plays the bongos and streetlamps.

``When Harry Met Sally ...'' (1989). Particularly recommended for platonic types who worry that sex will kill the friendship. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan begin as enemies, evolve into chums and then one night fall into the sack. Can one make two lovers of friends? The unexpected answer comes on New Year's Eve.

``La Bonne Annee'' (``Happy New Year,'' 1973). Particularly recommended for the larcenous and their lovers. Captivating caper yarn from France that stars Lino Ventura as an intellectual jewel thief who falls in love with scrumptious antiques dealer Francoise Fabian, whose shop is next door to the jeweler he fleeces. He gets arrested one New Year's Eve and paroled the next: But will she wait for him to uncork the champagne? This one's subtitled.

``Waiting to Exhale'' (1995). Particularly recommended for chums who start their sentences, ``Girlfriend ...'' Bracketed by New Year's Eve celebrations, four friends (Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Whitney Houston and Lela Rochon) learn how to stop worrying about men and learn to love them instead. This intoxicating girlfest can make you believe that there is no pain champagne can't cure.

``Made for Each Other'' (1939). Particularly recommended for young marrieds. Never let the seeds keep you from enjoying the watermelon. That's the lesson newlyweds Carole Lombard and James Stewart learn, though their first few years of marriage are nearly ruined by his job crises, her mother-in-law problems and their new baby. On New Year's Eve, they finally find something to celebrate - their divorce. Naturally, fate intervenes to provide an ending that could even make a misanthrope cry laughing.

``Rich and Famous'' (1981). Particularly recommended for female bonding. How could the Susan Sontag-serious author played by Jackie Bisset be best friends with the Judith Krantz-ditz portrayed by Candice Bergen? In this remake of ``Old Acquaintance,'' they are alternately best of friends and worst of enemies who finally resolve their differences on a devilishly competitive New Year's Eve where one wins a national book prize the other covets.

``That Hamilton Woman'' (1941). Particularly recommended for those who must put duty before devotion to their beloved. Laurence Olivier is Adm. Nelson, who defeated Napoleon on the Nile before taking up with the beauteous Emma, Lady Hamilton (Vivien Leigh), wife of the British ambassador to Naples. Emma persuades the king of Naples to give Nelson reinforcements. Shortly thereafter, Napoleon conquers Naples, Emma conquers Nelson and the lovebirds steal off to Palermo for New Year's Eve, 1799. At midnight, they gaze out toward the esplanade and watch the dawn of the 1800s. Nelson sweeps Emma into his arms, busses her passionately and afterward rapturously exclaims, ``Now I've kissed you through two centuries.'' But duty calls.

``Trading Places'' (1983). Particularly recommended for male bonding. Eddie Murphy is Billy Ray Valentine, Philadelphia bum. Dan Aykroyd is Louis Winthorpe III, Philadelphia snob. To settle an argument about whether it's nature or nurture that makes a well-bred man, Louis' uncles (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy) give a fortune to Billy Ray and strip Louis of his. Money changes everything - it even makes a man out of the snob and a commodities ace out of the bum, a comic fact proven at the commodities exchange during the holiday season.