"If [the directors] come back and tell us that's the only way we can survive, I may have to consider [helping]," he said.

Harvard students and faculty will be affected as well if the Brattle's problems worsen.

According to Lampke, many Harvard faculty and staff and some students are Brattle clientele.

Still, she said she would like to see increased student support of the theater.

"We'd like to get more students," she said. "We're not getting as many as the Brattle has gotten in its history. It certainly seems like student-type programming."

Lampke said the Brattle's fate hinges upon area movie patrons' interest.

"Everybody's got to fight a little bit for this place," she said.

When the theater's lease expires in 2001, Lampke hopes the single-screen art house will not become obsolete.

"If all of the film programming in this country is done by theater chains, the public will not have access to people who are out there willing to do other programming," she said.

"It kind of depends on what happens with this next phase. If we can bring the theater to an area where we can have more resources available to it, then we can have all kinds of possibilities, but it's got to prove itself between now and then," she said