The directors are the real draw at this year’s edition of the famed film festival

Nearly 60 years of cinematic history have echoed in the corridors of the Cannes Film Festival, giving us such motley items as "La Dolce Vita," "Taxi Driver," "Barton Fink," "Blow Up," "Mystery Train," "Fahrenheit 9/11," "Apocalypse Now," "Pulp Fiction," "Wings of Desire," "The Leopard," "Dancer in the Dark," "Cache" ...

Hard to find anything "usual" among these gems. And these were just the ones that won prizes.

Some of the splashiest Hollywood productions made their first big splash at Cannes: A year ago, "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" premiered there, as did "War of the Worlds." This year it’s "The Da Vinci Code," "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "Over the Hedge."

But somehow the lineup for the festival, which kicked off its 59th edition Wednesday, seems wilder than usual — maybe because so many directors on the schedule have previous movies that have made audiences intensely curious about what they’ll do for an encore.

Consider Richard Kelly, whose "Donnie Darko" (2001) has become a cultural landmark for at least a generation of filmgoers. Those who have been wondering how Kelly could possibly top such a dark, eccentric tale will finally find out with his much-anticipated "Southland Tales."

"Southland," as with "Darko," mixes mystery, horror and black humor in its portrait of Los Angeles just two years into the future and facing economic and environmental catastrophe. Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson are among the stars.

Then there’s Sofia Coppola, whose "Lost in Translation" (2003) elevated her stature among filmmakers in America and abroad. Her Cannes entry, "Marie-Antoinette," is a historical epic that appears, sight unseen, to be a sharp veer from "Translation’s" deadpan comedy. Kirsten Dunst, who co-starred in Coppola’s "The Virgin Suicides" from 1999, plays the ill-fated French monarch. Jason Schwartzman, Rip Torn, Judy Davis and Asia Argento are also in the cast.

It’s not just American directors who are arousing such curiosity. Alejandro Gonzalez Irritu, whose "Amores Perros" (2000) and "21 Grams" (2003) combined to bring him international acclaim, is coming to Cannes with "Babel." Guillermo Arriaga, scriptwriter on both "Amores" and "Grams," also wrote this new film, which, as with the other two, compresses different stories with intertwining destinies. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal co-star.

Then there’s Richard Linklater, who, but for last year’s widely derided remake of "The Bad News Bears," would be riding an unrelenting hot streak going back to 2001’s "Waking Life" and continuing with 2003’s "School of Rock" and 2004’s "Before Sunset." Linklater’s name is attached to two films: "Fast Food Nation," a freewheeling adaptation of Eric Schlosser’s muckraking inquiry into America’s junk-eating addictions, and "A Scanner Darkly," which turns Philip K. Dick’s surreal novel about addiction into a provocative blend of live action and animation.

Speaking of stretching hot streaks, Pedro Almodovar’s "Volver" looks to be the kind of resonant, cunning and heart-stirring melodrama that has marked such recent works of the Spanish maestro as 2002’s "Talk to Her" and 1999’s "All About My Mother." Carmen Maura plays a ghost who returns home to bring solace to the lives of two daughters (Penelope Cruz, Lola Dueas). Mexican-born director Guillermo del Toro ("Hellboy") also has a movie set in Spain, "Pan’s Labyrinth," which evokes a girl’s fantasy life in the years after Franco’s ascension to power.