TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : ****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : VIDEOCASSETTES

“Maedchen in Uniform.” Embassy. $29.95. In 1931, Leontine Sagan’s debut film created an international sensation. Probably the most highly praised feature directed by a woman in the cinema’s first half-century, it’s still a fascinating work: an intense drama set at a girls’ school, with a young student’s idealized love for her teacher leading to persecution and tragedy. Neither playwright-scenarist Christa Winsloe, Sagan nor actresses Dorothea Wieck and Hertha Thiefe shy away from the lesbian undercurrents. Skillfully and poetically, Sagan etches a romance-allegory of stifled love and suppression in a sterile, authoritarian milieu. (The film was lost for years, and the print and sound quality here are adequate but substandard.) Information: (213) 553-3600. *** 1/2