Cabler aims to domesticate foreign pix. (foreign language movies)

NEW YORK - Foreign-language movies - which used to be cool in America - have fallen on hard times at the box office. But they may find their Stateside salvation in an unlikely place - on cable, which, until now, has not rushed to embrace non-English-language films.

The people who run Bravo and the Independent Film Channel have cooked up World Cinema, a cable network devoted exclusively to foreign-language movies that should be ready to open for business within the next year.

"This channel could replace the vanished repertory houses throughout the country that used to play 'La Dolce Vita,"Seven Samurai,"Jules & Jim' and 'La Strada,'" says Jonathan Sehring, senior VP …