Paradis Found

Where style meets substance

fanfair

France's favorite lollipop, Vanessa Paradis had her first hit single at fourteen and a platinum album two years later, mewing the sort of soulless pap that passes for Europop. But Paradis (still a teenager!) isn't an instantly disposable baby doll. In her debut film, Noce Blanche, she was affecting as a schoolgirl suffering amour fou with her old fart of a philosophy teacher, and was awarded a Cesar. And on her latest album, Variations sur le Meme T'aime (Polydor), she covers Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"—which for her probably means crossing the street to buy black tights for her next poetry reading. Paradis can't help being a goody gumdrop, for all her Lolita prancing. She makes such adorable squeaks when she Sings.

JAMES WOLCOTT