THE GREAT DIRECTORS (Collect all 200 in the first series)

I've always been fond of trading cards, though I no longer collect them. But if I were to design a card series, this would be it. The great film directors are a fascinating bunch because, by and large, unless they regularly appear before cameras, even the most devoted fans have only a vague idea what they look like. Here's my attempt to remedy that. Amongst the many movie and still cameras, film strips, pointing fingers, beards, foppish heads of hair (or bald domes), spectacles, eyepatches, sunglasses, smoking devices, dark backgrounds, scarves, big hats and stylish suits, you'll find one thing in common: that film directing ups one's cool factor to impossible degrees. Seriously, these are some of the most mackin'  people ever to walk the planet. I stuck with ONLY black-and-white images and tried to include a wide variety of shots (and a big thanks to all the talented photographers involved here). My favorite images are often the slickest or craziest of the bunch: Mel Brooks (hilarious, of course), Kathryn Bigelow (action shot!), Dziga Vertov, Melvin Van Peebles, Ken Russell (insanely perusing film clips), Mario Bava (mugging with a frown), Bob Fosse, Quentin Tarantino, Charles and Ray Eames (on a motorcycle), John Cassavetes, David Lynch (with a chicken), Roger Corman (with a machine gun), Auguste and Louis Lumiere, Roman Polanski (staring out an apartment window), Busby Berkeley (surrounded by his creations), Jean Cocteau, Ousmene Sembene (impossibly cool), Preston Sturges, Sergei Eisenstein (a complete madman for movies), Sidney Lumet (on an NYC subway), Jacques Tati (in full Hulot mode) and the dandy Wes Anderson. By the way, the photos and names are not placed in any order. I leave it up to film fans to recognize why I included each director, and to speculate on the six films each that placed each here.

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas, film fans. 

Here's the key for all included directors, in alphabetical order (I also just added key films for each director, limiting myself to only six films per name, with only one exception):  

Robert Aldrich (Kiss Me Deadly, The Dirty Dozen, Attack, The Flight of the Phoenix, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Longest Yard)

Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Manhattan, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Broadway Danny Rose, Hannah and Her Sisters, Love and Death)
Pedro Almodovar (All About My Mother, Talk to Her, Matador, Volver, High Heels, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!)
Robert Altman (Nashville, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, 3 Women, MASH, Gosford Park, The Long Goodbye)
Lindsay Anderson (if..., O Lucky Man!, Brittania Hospital, This Sporting Life, The Whales of August)
Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Punch Drunk Love, The Master, Magnolia)
Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Bottle Rocket, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou)
Kenneth Anger (Scorpio Rising, Lucifer Rising, Invocation of My Demon Brother, Hollywood Babylon)
Michelangelo Antonioni (Blow Up, Red Desert, The Passenger, L'Eclisse, La Notte, L'Avventura)
Dario Argento (Deep Red, Suspiria, Tenebre, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Four Flies on Grey Velvet)
Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain, Pi, Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, The Wrestler)
Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude, Being There, Bound for Glory, Shampoo, The Last Detail, The Landlord)
Tex Avery (A Wild Hare, I Love to Singa, Red Hot Riding Hood, The Cat That Hated People, Screwball Squirrel, King-Sized Canary)
Carroll Ballard (The Black Stallion, Fly Away Home, Never Cry Wolf, Duma)
Saul Bass (see this)
Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, Greenberg, The Squid and the Whale, Kicking and Screaming)
Mario Bava (Black Sunday, Black Sabbath, Rabid Dogs, Danger: Diabolik, Lisa and the Devil)
Warren Beatty (Reds, Bulworth, Dick Tracy, Heaven Can Wait)
Ingmar Bergman (Fanny and Alexander, The Seventh Seal, Through a Glass Darkly, The Virgin Spring, Persona, Winter Light)
Busby Berkeley (Gold Diggers of 1935, Stage Struck, Babes in Arms, Stage Struck, Strike Up The Band, They Made Me a Criminal)
Bernardo Bertolucci (The Comformist, The Spider's Strategem, 1900, The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris, The Dreamers)
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, Near Dark, Point Break, The Loveless)
Budd Boetticher (Ride Lonesome, Buchannan Rides Alone, The Tall T, Seven Men From Now, The Bullfighter and The Lady, Decision at Sundown)
Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Targets, Paper Moon, What's Up Doc?, They All Laughed, Saint Jack)
Sergei Bondarchuk (War and Peace (68))
John Boorman (Deliverance, Excalibur, Point Blank, Hope and Glory, Hell in the Pacific, The Emerald Forest)
Stan Brakhage (Mothlight, Dog Star Man, The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes, Garden of Earthly Delights, Black Ice, The Wold Shadow)
Robert Bresson (A Man Escaped, Au Hazard Balthazar, Pickpocket, Diary of a Country Priest, Mouchette, Lancelot of the Lake)
Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Silent Movie, High Anxiety)
Charles Burnette (Killer of Sheep, To Sleep With Anger, The Glass Shield)
Luis Bunuel (Un Chien Andelou, L'Age D'or, Los Olvidados, The Exterminating Angel, Belle De Jour, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie)
James Cameron (The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Titanic, Avatar)
Jane Campion (The Piano, Bright Star, Sweetie, An Angel at My Table, Top of the Lake)
Frank Capra (It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Lost Horizon, Arsenic and Old Lace, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Meet John Doe)
John Carpenter (Halloween, They Live, The Thing, Dark Star, Escape From New York, Starman)
John Cassavetes (A Woman Under the Influence, Husbands, Opening Night, Shadows, Faces, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie)
Claude Chabrol (La Ceremonie, This Man Must Die, Le Boucher, The Story of Women, The Flower of Evil, A Girl Cut in Two)
Charles Chaplin (City Lights, Modern Times, The Gold Rush, The Kid, Monsuier Verdoux, The Great Dictator)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Three Monkeys, Distant, Climates)
Jean Cocteau (Beauty and the Beast, Orpheus, Testament of Orpheus, The Blood of a Poet)
Joel and Ethan Coen (Barton Fink, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski, Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple)
Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The Rain People, Tucker: The Man and His Dream)
Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinnete, The Bling Ring)
Roger Corman (The Masque of the Red Death, Little Shop of Horrors, Pit and the Pendulum, The Wild Angels, X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, The Trip)
Constantine Costa-Gavras (Z, Missing, State of Siege, Le Capital, The Confession)
David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers, The Fly, eXistenZ, Spider, Videodrome, The Dead Zone)
Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien, A Little Princess)
Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Mildred Pierce, Angels with Dirty Faces, The Sea Hawk, Yankee Doodle Dandy)
George Cukor (A Star is Born (54), Dinner at Eight, The Philadelphia Story, Adam's Rib, Sylvia Scarlett, My Fair Lady)
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (L'enfant, The Son, The Kid with a Bike, Rosetta, La Promesse)
Jules Dassin (Rififi, Night and the City, Brute Force, Never on Sunday, Circle of Two)
Terrence Davies (The House of Mirth, The Long Day Closes, Distant Voices Still Lives, Of Time and the City, The Deep Blue Sea)
Jonathan Demme (Stop Making Sense, The Silence of the Lambs, Handle with Care (aka Citizen's Band), Something Wild, Caged Heat, Melvin and Howard)
Claire Denis (Beau Travail, White Material, 35 Shots of Rum, Trouble Every Day)
Brian De Palma (Blow Out, Carrie, Sisters, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, Femme Fatale)
Walt Disney (Steamboat Willie, The Barnyard Concert, The Skeleton Dance, The Ugly Duckling, Who Killed Cock Robin, Fantasia)
Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain, Charade, Funny Face, On The Town, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Bedazzled)
Carl Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan D'Arc, Ordet, Day of Wrath, Vampyr, Gertrud)
Charles and Ray Eames (Powers of Ten, Tops, Kites, Think)
Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales, High Plains Drifter, Bronco Billy, White Hunter Black Heart, The Bridges of Madison County)
Sergei Eisenstein (Alexander Nevsky, Battleship Potemkin, Ivan the Terrible Part One: Ivan Grozny, Ivan the Terrible Part Two: The Boyars' Plot, Que Viva Mexico (32), October: Ten Days That Shook The World)
Federico Fellini (8 1/2, Nights of Caberia, La Strada, I Vitelloni, Amarcord, Fellini Satyricon)
David Fincher (The Social Network, Seven, Zodiac, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
John Ford (Stagecoach, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Searchers, They Were Expendable, My Darling Clementine, The Grapes of Wrath)
Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hair, The Fireman's Ball, Ragtime, Amadeus, Loves of a Blonde)
Bill Forsyth (Local Hero, Gregory's Girl, That Sinking Feeling, Housekeeping, Comfort and Joy, Being Human)
Bob Fosse (All That Jazz, Cabaret, Star 80, Lenny, Sweet Charity)
John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, Seconds, The Train, Birdman of Alcatraz, Ronin)
William Friedkin (The Exorcist, Sorcerer, The French Connection, To Live and Die in L.A., Killer Joe, Crusing)
Samuel Fuller (Shock Corridor, The Naked Kiss, Pickup on South Street, Fixed Bayonetes!, The Steel Helmet, The Big Red One)
Abel Gance (Napoleon (27))
Terry Gilliam (Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Time Bandits)
Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless, Masculin Feminin, Weekend, Pierrot Le Fou, Contempt, Band of Outsiders)
D.W. Griffith (Intolerance, The Birth of a Nation, Broken Blossoms, Orphans of the Storm)
Michael Haneke (Funny Games, The White Ribbon, Cache, Amour, The Piano Teacher, The Seventh Continent)
Ray Harryhausen (special effects sequences in: Jason and the Argonauts, The Valley of Gwangi, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Clash of the Titans, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms)
Henry Hathaway (Kiss of Death, True Grit, Fourteen Hours, The Desert Fox, Niagra, China Girl)
Howard Hawks (Rio Bravo, Bringing Up Baby, Red River, His Girl Friday, The Big Sleep, To Have and To Have Not)
Werner Herzog (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Grizzly Man, Every Man For Himself and God Against All (aka The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser), Fitzcarraldo, My Best Fiend, Encounters at the End of the World)
George Roy Hill (A Little Romance, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The World of Henry Orient, Slaughterhouse-Five, Slap Shot)
Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt, The 39 Steps, The Birds)
John and Faith Hubley (Moonbird, The Doonesbury Special, The Hole, Cockadoody, Of Stars and Men)
John Huston (The Treasure of Sierra Madre, The Dead, The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen, Beat The Devil, Fat City, Prizzi's Honor)
James Ivory (The Remains of the Day, Howards End, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, A Room with a View, Maurice, Shakespeare Wallah)
Peter Jackson (Heavenly Creature, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Meet The Feebles, Forgotten Silver)
Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise, Mystery Train, Dead Man, Down by Law, Permanent Vacation)
Chuck Jones (What's Opera Doc?, Duck Amuck, Duck Dodgers in 24 1/2th Century, Hair-Raising Hare, Long Haired Hare, The Dot and the Line, The Dover Boys at Pimento University, Feed The Kitty, One Froggy Evening, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Rabbit Seasoning, From A to Z-Z-Z)
Spike Jonez (Being John Malkovich, Where The Wild Things Are, Adaptation, Sabotage)
Wong Kar-Wei (Chungking Express, In The Mood For Love, 2046, Days of Being Wild, Happy Together, Fallen Angels)
Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire, On The Waterfront, East of Eden, A Face in the Crowd, Splendor in the Grass, Panic in the Streets)
Buster Keaton (The General, Steamboat Bill Jr., The Navigator, Our Hospitality, Seven Chances, The Cameraman)
Gene Kelly (Singin' in the Rain, On The Town, It's Always Fair Weather)
Abbas Kierostami (A Taste of Cherry, Through The Olive Trees, Certified Copy, Life and Nothing More, The Wind Will Carry Us, Close-Up)
Krzysztof Kieslowski (Three Colors: Blue, Three Colors: Red, The Double Life of Veronique, Dekalogue, Blind Chance, Camera Buff)
Takeshi Kitano (Sonatine, Fireworks, Kikojiro, Boiling Point, Violent Cop)
Barbara Kopple (Harlan County USA, American Dream, Wild Man Blues, Shut Up and Sing)
Hirokazu Kore-eda (Nobody Knows, Still Walking, After Life, I Wish, Like Father Like Son)

Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Barry Lyndon, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining)
Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samarai, Ikiru, Rashomon, Ran, Yojimbo, High and Low)
Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M, Fury, Man Hunt, Hangmen Also Die, The Big Heat)

John Lasseter (Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Tin Toy, Luxo Jr.)

David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Great Expectations, Brief Encounter, Ryan's Daughter, Doctor Zhivago, A Passage to India)
Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility, Life of Pi)

Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, 25th Hour, Inside Man, She's Gotta Have It, Jungle Fever)
Mike Leigh (Life is Sweet, Topsy Turvy, Abigail's Party, Another Year, Secrets and Lies, All or Nothing)

Sergio Leone (The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, Once Upon a Time in America, Duck You Sucker)

Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night, Petulia, The Knack and How to Get It, The Bed Sitting Room, Help!, Superman II)

Jerry Lewis (The Nutty Professor, The Bellboy, The Family Jewels, The Ladies Man, The Errand Boy, Hardly Working)

Joseph H. Lewis (Gun Crazy, The Big Combo, Terror in a Texas Town)

Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Bernie, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Waking Life, Slacker, Before Midnight)

Ernst Lubischt
George Lucas
Sidney Lumet
Auguste and Louis Lumiere
David Lynch
Terrence Malick
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Anthony Mann
Michael Mann
Elaine May
Albert and David Maysles
Paul Mazursky
Leo McCarey
Ross McElwee
George Meiles
Russ Meyer
Vincente Minnelli
Kenji Mizoguchi
Robert Mulligan
F.W. Murnau
Mike Nichols
Lawrence Olivier
Max Ophuls
Yasujiro Ozu
Alan J. Pakula
Gordon Parks
Alexander Payne
Sam Peckinpah
Arthur Penn
D.A. Pennebaker
Roman Polanski
William S. Porter
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger
Otto Preminger
Bob Rafelson
Lynne Ramsay
Nicholas Ray
Satyajit Ray
Robert Redford
Carol Reed
Kelly Reichardt
Jean Renoir
Leni Riefenstahl
Jacques Rivette
Nicolas Roeg
Eric Rohmer
George A. Romero
Roberto Rossellini
Ken Russell
John Sayles
John Schlesinger
Ousmene Sembene
Martin Scorsese
Douglas Sirk
Steven Soderburgh
Steven Spielberg
Aleksandr Sokurov
George Stevens
Oliver Stone
Preston Sturges
Quentin Tarantino
Andrei Tarkovsky
Jacques Tati
Bertrand Tavernier
Francois Truffaut
Andrezj Vajda
Melvin Van Peebles
Gus Van Sant
Agnes Varda
Dziga Vertov
King Vidor
Erich Von Stroheim
Lars Von Trier
Raoul Walsh
Andy Warhol
John Waters
Peter Watkins
Apaitchapong Weerasethakul
Peter Weir
Orson Welles
William Wellman
Lina Wertmuller
James Whale
Billy Wilder
Robert Wise
Frederick Wiseman
John Woo
Edward D. Wood, Jr.
William Wyler
Zhang Yimou

NOTE: The second and final series is in the works, so any names left off will surely be coming up in the next salvo.