CERTAIN directors and actors are forever linked. Fellini and Mastroianni, Scorsese and De Niro, Truffaut and Leaud and, of course, Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune.
Kurosawa cast Mifune in all but one of the 17 films he made from 1948 through 1965, beginning with “Drunken Angel” (1948) and continuing through “Rashomon” (1951), “The Lower Depths” (1957), “Throne of Blood” (1957), “High and Low” (1963) and “The Seven Samurai” (1954).
Their work together put Kurosawa, Mifune and Japanese cinema itself on the international map.
Through Aug. 29, BAM Rose Cinemas (30 Lafayette Ave., off Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn) is unreeling 13 of the teamings, including all of the above.
It’s a must-see series. Info: http://www.bam.org.
* Dorothy Arzner is getting a 14-film retro at MoMA’s Gramercy Theater.
Dorothy who?
If that’s your reaction, don’t fret. Although Arzner (1897-1979) was one of the screen’s great pioneers – one of the few female directors during Hollywood’s studio era, turning out movies from 1927 through 1943 – she’s little remembered.
To quote MoMA curator Jytte Jensen, Arzner “was a woman’s director long before feminist ideas became part of the vocabulary.”
So check out the MoMA series, which runs until Aug. 17 and includes just about everything the openly gay Arzner directed.
Six of the films are newly restored by UCLA.
Among them: “The Wild Party” (1929), featuring the original It Girl, Clara Bow, and “Christopher Strong” (1933), with Katharine Hepburn as a fiery aviatrix in love with a married man.
The Gramercy is at 23rd Street and Lexington Avenue and the full schedule is at http://www.moma.org.
* It’s rare these days to see a Bob Hope movie on the big screen.
Luckily, 13 of them will unspool Friday-Aug. 14 at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater.
The mini-festival, planned before Hope’s death last week at age 100, will include three of the “Road” movies he made with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, as well as “My Favorite Blonde” (1942), “My Favorite Brunette” (1947) and “The Cat and the Canary” (1939).
Plus: Hope’s first screen test and his first short film, “Going Spanish” (1934).
Hope’s daughter Linda is expected to host an invitation-only reception and screening Friday night at Lincoln Center.
Info: http://www.filmlinc.com.