Big films, bigger names make the scene at Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival celebrates its diamond anniversary starting Wednesday, and many past winners are bringing new films to the most famous red carpet in the world.

The 60th edition opens with Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai's My Blueberry Nights, which sends Norah Jones on a road trip across the USA meeting characters played by Jude Law, David Strathairn, Natalie Portman, Tim Roth and Rachel Weisz.

The festival closes May 27 with Canadian director Denys Arcand and his Days of Darkness, starring Marc Labreche, Diane Kruger and Rufus Wainwright, about the fantasy life of a civil servant at the end of his rope.

Along the way, there will be about 85 official films; 22 in competition and the rest spread over other sections, including the Directors Fortnight (a kind of official counter-festival), plus hundreds more in the marketplace (where last year's Oscar-winning German film The Lives of Others was found).

Wong, who won best director in 1997 for Happy Together, and Arcand, who won best screenplay for The Barbarian Invasions in 2003, are among winners making a pilgrimage back to this resort city's Croisette walkway by the Mediterranean Sea. But it's not about the scenery.

"Every one of my films has benefited from being in Cannes," Arcand says. "For us in Canada, it's very important, much more so than for Americans. All the U.S., Italian, Australian and French distributors are there ?? the whole world, really ?? and they can see your film instead of you putting it in a suitcase and schlepping it all over the world."

People think of Cannes as a collection of snobs getting high on croissant fumes and art films about people driving around nude in the desert looking for truth.

"In reality," Arcand says, "it's a market, the biggest one, and basically the only one left. At some point, Venice and Berlin were important, but they've lost their luster. I've seen films bomb in Cannes, and it's terrifying. But, knock on wood, it never happened to me."

Among notable past winners daring to bare their wares this year ?? for prizes, purchase or publicity:

?The Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, with No Country for Old Men, about a hunter who stumbles upon drugs and cash. Fest history: Their Barton Fink won Palms in three categories in 1991, hitting a French nerve so close that Cannes limited the number of prizes to any one film. Since then, they've picked up prizes for Fargo (1996) and The Man Who Wasn't There (2001).

?Quentin Tarantino, hoping for better luck in France with Death Proof, his half of the Grindhouse double bill that bombed at the U.S. box office. Fest history: Won Palm for Pulp Fiction, 1994.

?Steven Soderbergh is screening his spritzy Ocean's 13 with pals George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Ellen Barkin and Don Cheadle in tow. Fest history: Won Palm for Sex, Lies, and Videotape in 1989.

?Michael Moore will have Sicko, his latest documentary, about health care in the USA. Fest history: Won a special prize for Bowling for Columbine in 2002 and the Palm for Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004.

?Gus Van Sant has Paranoid Park, the story of a skateboarder's fatal ride, with a cast of mostly unknowns. Fest history: Won film and director for Elephant in 2003.

Plenty of filmmakers who don't have winning records at Cannes will lure eyeballs with their projects, including: all 14 hours of Ken Burns' PBS documentary about World War II, The War, which is mired in controversy over the lack of Hispanics; Michael Winterbottom and star Angelina Jolie with A Mighty Heart, about the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl; David Fincher giving Zodiac a shove into the European marketplace; and New York painter-turned-director Julian Schnabel with his The Diving Belland theButterfly, a French-produced memoir about paralyzed Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby.

That's just the beginning, of course. There's no place like Cannes when it celebrates a milestone.

But for the veterans, is anything about it still fun?

"To be honest, no," Arcand says. "It's fun when you're young. I still remember the early '70s when I went there and was totally unknown with my little film and basically partied forever. I had very little sleep, and it was a lot of fun in those days."

But "my films are more expensive now. And as soon as I step out of the plane, my sales guys have a program for me of press and business people that goes on forever."