Down-to-earth actress Madeline Stowe co-stars in '12 Monkeys'.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)

NEW YORK _ Something about the dark, wide-set eyes, the alabaster skin and the coffee-colored hair that streams like a shawl around her shoulders makes Madeleine Stowe suggest a Picasso demoiselle come to life.

There's something ancient about the actress' face, also something very modern.

``It's a compelling face, a timeless face, a face you'd travel across time to see,'' says director Terry Gilliam.

So it figures that Gilliam cast Stowe in ``12 Monkeys,'' his time-traveling thriller/romance curiosity co-starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. The film opens Friday in Philadelphia, the town that supplied ``12 Monkeys'' with its striking post-apocalyptic landscape, and across the country.

On a recent morning, the timeless face wears a bright smile, as rare amid the Manhattan snowdrifts as a cactus flower. Stowe, 37, resembles both a madonna and a cowgirl. She is serenity in boots.

The delicate-looking creature speaks in a gruff alto, and it is this contrast that makes her register so powerfully. In life and on screen, Stowe comes on like a fine mist that, on closer examination, is made of iron filings.

The tall, serious actress, known for her roles in ``The Last of the…