Crossing Borders
	Dispensing with tradition, the next generation of filmmakers, athletes, authors and actors is leaping France's national, cultural and linguistic barriers
	By BRUCE CRUMLEY

Posted Sunday, April 14, 2002; 15.05GMT

	BERTRAND GUAY/AFP Jeunet received a César for his film Amélie

Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 48
Film Director
The box office success of his Alien IV: Resurrection proved French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet could prevail in Hollywood on the American film industry's own bottom-line terms. But last year Jeunet worked far greater magic — and, some say, a small cinematic miracle — by putting moviemaking pleasure before business, and enchanting audiences with his Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain.

Set in Jeunet's Montmartre neighborhood and shot to provide an idealized Parisian backdrop, the fable of Amélie's efforts to engineer happiness for those around her has delighted nearly 25 million viewers worldwide, made star Audrey Tautou iconic of la petite française, and given defenders of France's exception culturelle a compelling argument. "Amélie was designed to be a small French film using my favorite French actors and sites, and demanding a total freedom I couldn't have gotten anywhere but France," says Jeunet. "Though 20th Century Fox turned the movie down, executives there have since told me it was lucky it wound up as a 100% French production — it would have lost something essential otherwise. Part of its magic is its French flavor, color and attitude that, by definition, Hollywood cannot produce."

At least not intentionally. Two long, pressure-packed years in Los Angeles working on Alien IV left Jeunet longing to make "a very personal movie" — one fusing an embrace of the simple, lyrical pleasures of life with Jeunet's ode to the colorful places and people of the Montmartre the native of Nancy adopted as an aspiring filmmaker in 1974. "Audiences appreciate that Amélie comes from the heart, and is utterly faithful to the way I'd first conceived it in my head," Jeunet remarks. "It's a most un-Hollywood movie." Still, Jeunet is no Americanophobe — proudly calling the five Oscar nominations Amélie won the "shiny cherry on the cake" of the movie's box-office success. And despite Amélie's distinctly French feel, Jeunet is not turning his back on U.S. cinema — he's negotiating with Warner Bros. on an enigmatic project "adapting a French novel to cinema." Whatever that subject is, audiences can be certain to get the same visually distinct, semi-surreal Jeunet touches apparent in Amélie and his earlier movies, Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children. His studio, meanwhile, can count on another Jeunet signature: liberté absolue. BRUCE CRUMLEY

Djibril Cisse, 20
Footballer
With his platinum-dyed goatee, DayGlo zoot suits and eye wear worthy of a 1970s rock star, Djibril Cissé cuts a decidedly flamboyant figure in the otherwise reserved Burgundy city of Auxerre. But Cissé is turning even more heads on the pitches of France's professional football league, where his blazing speed, thundering goals and offensive acrobatics have made him one of the most lethal scoring threats in French soccer. Though injuries left the native of Arles sidelined for two full months this season, the prolific Cissé is still in the race for the league's goal-scoring title — and a spot on the French national squad that will defend its World Cup title this summer in Asia. Last year Cissé took France's under-20 team to the quarterfinals in the age group's World Championship — finishing second in scoring behind Argentine phenomenon and Barcelona striker, Javier Saviola. A month later he started his French pro play — and gained the attention of big-name, deep-pocketed teams from foreign leagues — with a four-goal game. The ensuing scoring binge was halted only when a savage tackle left Cissé injured, though he's now resumed his potent ways. His talent — and the interest abroad it has generated — has inflated Cissé's estimated transfer value from $2.7 million in 2001 to over $13 million today. That price tag will inflate further if Cissé can secure a spot with les Bleus this summer — and presumably provide the flashy dresser with even more eye-popping off-field threads BRUCE CRUMLEY

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