The Coen brothers & Frances McDormand
The Shared CV: Relative newcomer McDormand impressed the Coens enough in their debut Blood Simple for a further four main roles (plus a cameo in Miller's Crossing ). Plus, Joel Coen married her!
Defining Traits: While McDormand was ditzy enough to get noticed in the madness of Coenworld, it was her straighter, warmer role in Fargo that served notice that the Coens could be emotionally affecting.
Going Solo: The Coens do well enough without the missus (although she's conspicuously absent from their mid-Noughties career blip). McDormand herself has settled into comfortable middle-age as a high-calibre character actor, most recently in Moonrise Kingdom .
John Huston & Humphrey Bogart
The Shared CV: Supporting player Bogart wasn't Huston's first choice to play Sam Spade in his directorial debut, The Maltese Falcon , but he proved the right choice, making major stars of both and kickstarting a four-film association during which both won Oscars.
Defining Traits: Huston's grizzled cynicism found a willing vehicle in Bogart's no-nonsense performance style, especially in the coruscating The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre .
Going Solo: Bogart contracted cancer and died in 1957; Huston remained one of Hollywood's most reliable and prolific directors into old age.
Woody Allen & Diane Keaton
The Shared CV: Technically, Allen made more films with Mia Farrow, but his 70s muse helped define the director's breakthrough from "early, funny" films to more bittersweet fare.
Defining Traits: Keaton's dizziness played off Allen's neurotic persona perfectly, giving Annie Hall in particular its timeless appeal.
Going Solo: The beginning of Allen's relationship with Farrow started a new direction, but Keaton continued to impress on her own terms. The two reunited on 1993's Manhattan Murder Mystery .
Billy Wilder & Jack Lemmon
The Shared CV: Seven films in total - three co-starring regular on-screen partner Walter Matthau, but four without, including classics Some Like It Hot and The Apartment .
Defining Traits: Lemmon's persona as jittery neurotic owes it all to Wilder's fondness for dark-edged, bittersweet comedy-drama.
Going Solo: Wilder only directed four films after Some Like It Hot in which Lemmon didn't feature, but Lemmon won two Oscars and a Cannes Best Actor prize without Wilder's help.
Alfred Hitchcock & Grace Kelly
The Shared CV: Only three films - but it took a royal romance to prevent that tally being higher.
Defining Traits: Kelly was the perfect Hitchcock blonde - pure passion beneath an ice-cold exterior - and the director never really got over her decision to quit acting and marry Prince Rainier of Monaco.
Going Solo: Kelly made only two further films after final Hitchcock collaboration To Catch A Thief . The Master of Suspense went on to make his greatest films ( Vertigo , North By Northwest , Psycho ) with a succession of different blondes.
Howard Hawks & Cary Grant
The Shared CV: Five films between 1938 and 1952, in which Hawks upped the game for fast-talking screen comedy and Grant matched every breathless syllable.
Defining Traits: Aside from the speed, it's worth noting the sheer irreverence of their films, as Grant willingly made a fool of himself in pursuit of Hawks' laughs.
Going Solo: Grant took his amiable persona in darker directions in four films with Hitchcock, while the versatile Hawks made classics in so many genres he was equally comfortable using Bogart or Wayne as stars.
Tim Burton & Johnny Depp
The Shared CV: Depp brought charm and subtlety to Burton's best films, Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood . Since 2005, he's starred in every one of the director's films.
Defining Traits: Oddball - Depp continues to use Burton to escape from matinee idol duty, while Burton is weird 100% of the time.
Going Solo: Depp found global fame as Captain Jack Sparrow, a role he'd never had done that way without Burton's influence. The director, meanwhile, seems to have given up making films without Depp.
Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune
The Shared CV: A whopping 16 films, over the course of which Kurosawa and Mifune went from virtual unknowns to global art-house stars.
Defining Traits: Mifune was the human face of Kurosawa's kinetic visual style - a whirling dervish of action and passion who sliced through jidai-geki epics Seven Samurai and Yojimbo .
Going Solo: A falling out during the making of 1965's Red Beard ended their career. It took Kurosawa a decade-and-a-half to find his form again, while Mifune became Hollywood's go-to guy for Japanese characters in Hell In The Pacific and Spielberg's 1941 .
John Ford & John Wayne
The Shared CV: Wayne's breakthrough Stagecoach was in fact his eighth collaboration with Ford; they made another 13 after that.
Defining Traits: Hard wearing, non-nonsense filmmaking that made Wayne the face of the Western, and Ford the genre's architect.
Going Solo: Wayne had an equally strong partnership with Henry Hathaway, while Ford's repertory company also include Henry Fonda, Ward Bond and James Stewart. But the two go together like cowboy and horse.
Martin Scorsese & Robert De Niro
The Shared CV: Eight films, including five ( Mean Streets , Taxi Driver , Raging Bull , The King Of Comedy and Goodfellas ) that are regarded as landmarks in American cinema.
Defining Traits: On the surface, an unflinching violence; underneath, a relentless study of the corrosion of the soul.
Going Solo: De Niro's track record has nosedived since he parted from Marty after 1995's Casino . Scorsese found a new collaborator in Leonardo DiCaprio, and remains the gold standard amongst American directors.
