A tribute fit for a thespian monarch

By Susan King

Jan. 11, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

TO say that Helen Mirren is having a run that most performers only dream of is something of an understatement.

In August, she won an Emmy for her performance in the HBO miniseries “Elizabeth I.” And she’s been the recipient of numerous honors from critics’ groups, as well as receiving nominations for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards, for her current turn as another British monarch -- Elizabeth II -- in the feature “The Queen.”

So it comes as little wonder that the British actress is the subject of a two-day tribute this weekend at the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre.

Screening Friday are two of her early films, 1984’s “Cal” and 1969’s “Age of Consent.” Mirren won best actress at Cannes for her role in “Cal” as the Catholic widow of a murdered Northern Irish Protestant policeman who has an affair with the IRA accomplice (John Lynch) in his death.

“Age of Consent,” the final feature from director Michael Powell, marked Mirren’s debut. James Mason plays a randy old artist vacationing on an island in the Great Barrier Reef who finds his latest muse in the guise of a teenage free spirit (Mirren) who has no qualms in walking around au naturel.

Mirren is set to appear at the Egyptian on Saturday for a discussion in between screenings of “The Queen” and of Terry George’s 1996 Irish drama “Some Mother’s Son.”

Kurosawa survey

The Cinematheque at the Aero in Santa Monica is offering a retrospective of seminal films by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa next week.

The festival begins next Thursday with the riveting 1949 thriller “Stray Dog,” with Kurosawa’s favorite leading man, Toshiro Mifune, as a Tokyo police detective who discovers that his gun has been stolen from him on the bus.

Screening Jan. 19 is “Rashomon,” the 1950 drama that put Kurosawa on the map internationally. The director explores the nature of truth in this haunting story of a tragic event that occurs in the forest between a husband (Masayuki Mori), his wife (Machiko Kyo) and a bandit (Mifune) and the conflicting accounts from various witnesses as to what actually happened

Rounding out the double bill is 1957’s “Throne of Blood,” Kurosawa’s brilliant retelling of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” envisioned as a samurai melodrama. Mifune and a mesmerizing Isuzu Yamada as his ambitious wife star.

Kurosawa puts his unique spin on another Shakespeare classic, “King Lear,” with his well-regarded 1985 film “Ran,” scheduled for Jan. 19. Tatsuya Nakadai plays the aging, once-brutal warlord who leaves his kingdom to his three squabbling sons.

The film won an Oscar for its stunning costumes; Kurosawa received an Oscar nomination for best director but lost to Sydney Pollack for “Out of Africa.”

Prime puzzlers

In conjunction with the current Rene Magritte exhibition, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s film department is presenting “Through the Looking Glass (and Down the Rabbit Hole ...”), a festival that features films examining the question: “What is real and what is fantasy?”

The series kicks off Jan. 19 with Orson Welles’ 1948 “Lady From Shanghai,” a mystery thriller that is convoluted and mesmerizing; Welles and then-wife Rita Hayworth star. The movie, which was a flop with critics and audiences, features an audacious, climactic shootout sequence in a house of mirrors.

Screening with “Shanghai” is the 1965 thriller “Bunny Lake Is Missing,” directed by Otto Preminger. Set in London, the film revolves around a young single mother (Carol Lynley) whose daughter disappears from a nursery school. When the authorities begin to investigate her disappearance, they learn that the school doesn’t have the child registered and soon doubt that the little girl even existed. Laurence Olivier and Keir Dullea also star.

David Lynch’s bizarre 2001 thriller “Mulholland Drive” is scheduled for Jan. 20. Naomi Watts and Laura Harring star in this ominous examination of Hollywood.

Houdini in charge

Harry Houdini wasn’t just a famous magician and escape artist, he also was a full-fledged movie star during the silent era. And he’s the star, producer and director of the 1923 mystery “Haldane of the Secret Service,” which screens this evening at the Silent Movie Theatre. Houdini plays Heath Haldane, a death-defying young man who escapes from ropes, chains and strongboxes to catch the bad guys who murdered his detective father.

They’re No. 2

“AFI’s 100 Years ... 100 Stars” screening series begins next week at the ArcLight.

AFI’s No. 2 male screen legend, Cary Grant, headlines one of his best comedies, 1940’s “His Girl Friday,” on Wednesday. Based on the play “The Front Page” by Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht, this frenetically paced comedy classic finds Grant playing fast-talking newspaper editor Walter Burns, who is desperate to win back his star reporter, who just happens to be his ex-wife (Rosalind Russell). It’s beautifully directed by Howard Hawks.

The No. 2 female screen legend, Bette Davis, received her final Oscar nomination for her deliciously over-the-top turn in the 1962 thriller “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?,” set for Jan. 24. Robert Aldrich helmed this creepy tale about two aging actress sisters living in a run-down house in Hollywood. Davis plays a former child star who takes care of -- and terrorizes -- her sister (Joan Crawford), whose own movie career ended after a car accident left her wheelchair-bound.

susan.king@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Screenings

Helen Mirren tribute

* “Cal” and “Age of Consent”: 7:30 p.m. Friday

* “The Queen” and “Some Mother’s Son”: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

Info: (323) 466-3456, americancinematheque.com

Akira Kurosawa series

* “Stray Dog”: 7:30 p.m. next Thursday

* “Rashomon” and “Throne of Blood”: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19

* “Ran”: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 20