A flexible multiscale and directional representation for images is proposed. The scheme combines directional filter banks with the Laplacian pyramid to provides a sparse representation for twodimensional piecewise smooth signals resembling images. The underlying expansion is a frame and can be designed to be a tight frame. Pyramidal directional filter banks provide an effective method to implement the digital curvelet transform. The regularity issue of the iterated filters in the directional filter bank is examined.