50 Greatest Movie Director & Star Collaborations

Vincente Minnelli & Judy Garland

The Shared CV: Minnelli was hired to devise a musical sequence for Garland in Strike Up The Band ; they hit it off, married and made four features together.

Defining Traits: It goes without saying that Garland's voice and Minnelli's camera made the most of musicals like Meet Me In St Louis . But drama The Clock best shows their mutual romanticism.

Going Solo: Minnelli directed An American In Paris (the first of his two Best Pictures) the year he split from Garland, but Judy was unfortunately on a downward slide broken only by the classic A Star Is Born .

Josef von Sternberg & Marlene Dietrich

The Shared CV: Director and star exploded onto the film world with the scandalously kinky German drama The Blue Angel , and continued their partnership when they moved to Hollywood.

Defining Traits: In a word, sex! Dietrich's persona as a lustful dominatrix was a major factor in the creation of Hollywood censorship.

Going Solo: von Sternberg struggled without Dietrich, although he made films sporadically until the 1950s. Dietrich stayed in Hollywood as an unlikely star, playing everything from comedy-Western Destry Rides Again to thriller Touch Of Evil .

Don Siegel & Clint Eastwood

The Shared CV: Over three films, Sergio Leone had carved Eastwood's reputation as counter-cultural cowboy, but it was his five films with Siegel that pushed the actor's range and ambition.

Defining Traits: The versatile Siegel helped to create Eastwood's take-no-prisoners persona in Dirty Harry , but also revealed a softer side in Two Mules For Sister Sara , and a weaker one in The Beguiled .

Going Solo: Siegel's long career was nearly at an end during the Eastwood years, but he passed on his mantle for classical, genre-hopping filmmaking to a talented protégé - Eastwood himself.

Francois Truffaut & Jean-Pierre Leaud

The Shared CV: The critic and the schoolboy entered filmmaking at the same time with The 400 Blows , and continued to work together until the director's death.

Defining Traits: As Truffaut's semi-autobiographical alter-ego Antoine Doinel, Leaud grew up on-screen over four more films up to 1979's Love On The Run .

Going Solo: Truffaut made great films without Leaud ( Jules Et Jim ). Leaud made great films without Truffaut ( The Mother And The Whore ). But most people think of them together.

Steven Soderbergh & George Clooney

The Shared CV: Love at first sight, as Soderbergh (suffering a career slow-down) and Clooney (keen to escape from E.R. typecasting) bonded on 1998's Out Of Sight and started production company Section 8 together.

Defining Traits: Clooney provided the anchor for Soderbergh's more mainstream films - the Ocean's 11 trilogy - but was open to more experimental fare like Solaris and Section 8 productions such as Far From Heaven .

Going Solo: Workaholics both, it's impossible for them to clear enough space in their schedules to work together but it hasn't stopped either from achieving success (and Oscar glory) outside of their relationship.

Sidney Lumet & Sean Connery

The Shared CV: Lumet's keen eye for good actors made him one of the first to spot Connery's potential and cast him, while he was still 007, in The Hill . Four further films followed until 1989's Family Business .

Defining Traits: Lumet's preference for tough drama drew out Connery's combative edge, nowhere more so than as a troubled, violent cop in The Offence .

Going Solo: The prolific Lumet had plenty of other successful partnerships, Al Pacino for one. Having proved there was life beyond Bond, Connery became the go-to guy for mentor figures in the 1980s, winning an Oscar for The Untouchables .

Wes Anderson & Bill Murray

The Shared CV: In one of the great career reinventions, Murray took a key role in Rushmore and became an integral member of Anderson's repertory.

Defining Traits: Anderson's oddball sensibility rests on the cusp of comedy and drama; Murray instinctively gets it, bringing as much sadness as laughter to his performances.

Going Solo: Lost In Translation and Broken Flowers both benefitted from Murray's post-Anderson reinvention. As for Wes, the nearest he's got to making a feature without Murray was a brief cameo in The Darjeeling Limited .

John Woo & Chow Yun Fat

The Shared CV: When The Killer alerted Western audiences to Hong Kong action cinema, Woo and Chow were already on their third (of five) collaborations.

Defining Traits: Chow made Woo's frenetic visual style halfway plausible - nobody looks cooler diving into mid-air, a firing pistol in each hand.

Going Solo: Woo was lured to Hollywood, initially to great success but floundering after Mission: Impossible 2 . Ditto for Chow, who went from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Bulletproof Monk .

David Fincher & Brad Pitt

The Shared CV: Only three films to date, but the first two ( Se7en and Fight Club ) changed the direction of Pitt's career and marked Fincher's arrival as Hollywood's bravest director.

Defining Traits: Fincher pushed Pitt like no director before or since, encouraging him to have his teeth chipped to play Tyler Durden, and convincing him to play both baby and elderly fella in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button .

Going Solo: Pitt as since become a star who straddles mainstream and independent worlds, working with Malick, Dominik and Tarantino. Fincher, especially after The Social Network , can pretty much do anything he likes.

Werner Herzog & Klaus Kinski

The Shared CV: Kinski's reputation for being notoriously difficult to work with didn't put off the equally iconoclastic Herzog. Aguirre: Wrath Of God began a five-film collaboration that made both world-famous.

Defining Traits: Complete pandemonium, as star and director attempted to out-crazy each other. Based on Fitzcaraldo 's boat-on-a-mountain imagery, Herzog won.

Going Solo: Kinski died of a heart attack in 1991, aged 65. Herzog, if anything, has become more prolific: 5 films and 7 feature-length documentaries since 2000.