People

By Guy D. Garcia

The French have long put the ooh in la la, and the watchwords of recent years in France have been "slim" and "sleek." Now a newcomer named Beatrice Dalle is bursting the seams of Paris and bringing some heft back to pulchritude. Two years ago, the unknown 19-year-old bohemian was walking down a Paris street when a photographer asked to take her picture. She agreed and -- voila! -- Dalle soon appeared on her first magazine cover, followed last summer by an Elle magazine story using her face and cleavage to herald the return of the well-rounded figure. Her acting debut in Betty Blue, a steamy art flick by Diva Director JeanJacques Beineix, caused a sensation in France. Dalle is not overly impressed with her visage. "My skull is too flat, my ears stick out, my mouth is too big, my belly too round and my buttocks too heavy," she has observed. But Dominique Besnehard, the hot casting director who picked her to play Betty Blue, sees something else. "Like Brigitte Bardot, her physical anomalies are more important than her beauty," he says. "There is obvious violence in her look." Americans will have a chance to make their own determination. The movie is just opening around the U.S.