Gallic summer sizzle.(US films drawing better in France)(Deauville Film Festival - special section)

PARIS It wasn't so long ago that just about every savvy French film exec was predicting that the huge influx of multiplexes in France would hand the domestic theatrical market to Hollywood on a plate. Plexes, so it was said, would be the aircraft carriers from which the U.S. majors would launch an unstoppable invasion on the Gallic box office. Hollywood blockbusters, like Spielberg's dinosaurs, would stomp their way across France, condemning local fare to play an increasingly marginal role in the cinema industry.

Today, that doomsday scenario has failed to come to fruition. Certainly, American pics, such as "Men in Black" and "Titanic," are drawing increasing numbers of people to French hardtops. And, yes, over the past three years, ticket sales for …