A well-rounded individual whose interests include movies, cinema and film, Chicagoan Lisa Nesselson has been contributing to <I>Variety</I> from Paris since 1990. From 1986-2001 she wrote the irreverent monthly film pages of the Paris Free Voice. Her rambling 8000-word "Letter From Paris" appears erratically in Facets Features. A contributor to the BBC World Service and a former Radio France International anchor, her book-length translations from French to English include biographies of Clint Eastwood, Simone de Beauvoir and Cinematheque Francaise founder Henri Langlois. Although Nesselson, a Northwestern University graduate, teaches at the American University in Paris, SMU-in-Paris and C.I.E.E., she suspects most film theories -- particularly those invented by the the French and adopted by American academics — are specious gibberish. In a shameless ploy to pad her resume, Nesselson performed the role of Lucy in "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" for a 6-month run in English at the Galerie 55 in Paris and, from 1983-1987, completed the annual New York Road Runners Club invitational Run-Up the Empire State Building. Having served on over a dozen film festival juries, Nesselson concludes that awards are either incredibly important or completely irrelevant.