Athenaeum outdoor movie series to pay homage to women in comedy

Every week this month, witty women will take center stage — make that center screen — in the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library’s annual outdoor movie series, “Flicks on the Bricks.”

The series, now in its 19th year, typically draws on a socially relevant theme to pay homage to classic filmmaking through four films.

So each of the next four Thursdays, the Athenaeum will present KPBS film critic and “Cinema Junkie” podcast host Beth Accomando as she screens a female-led comedy beginning at 8 p.m. at 1008 Wall St. in La Jolla.

Accomando said she hopes this year’s movie lineup will entertain audiences and challenge stereotypes along the way.

“I want to see films where women have agency,” Accomando said. “I don’t care if they’re good role models — that’s less interesting to me because flawed people tend to be more interesting than people who are perfect.”

“These are four films where the women really drive the plot and are so absolutely enchanting in their performances,” she added. “I don’t know if many people generally think of women in comedy or women in screwball comedy as a way to champion women or anything, but these films are so good.”

Accomando was first offered the opportunity to host “Flicks on the Bricks” in 2018. As a big fan of film, the offer was “irresistible,” she said.

“That’s one of the things I love to do the most — [to] just show movies to people,” Accomando said. “There’s nothing better than exposing people to something they’ve never seen that they then fall in love with.”

In that first year, Accomando assembled a lineup of noir films with San Diego roots. Since then, themes have included crime thrillers with La Jolla connections, screwball sparring matches and Hollywood classics.

Others drew on social trends. Amid last year’s testy election season, Accomando built a theme on political comedies that could help lighten the tone.

Inspiration for the 2025 theme came from a one-woman show, “Mae West Cleans Up Her Act,” that Accomando saw at the San Diego International Fringe Festival.

Accomando was surprised by the fascinating life West led and how risqué her comedy was at the time of her greatest film success in the 1930s.

“Nobody pushed her around,” Accomando said. “Her films stand up, I think. One of the reasons they stand up is because she’s poking fun at social mores, and on a certain level those have not changed all that much.

“This notion of actually challenging stereotypes about women and women’s sexuality is still something I think can be a bit provocative and definitely, with her, fun.”

Accomando’s attention was then drawn to other actresses of the ’30s — Carole Lombard, Norma Shearer and Jean Arthur.

Here are the movies that will be shown during the series:

• Aug. 7: “She Done Him Wrong” (1933), starring Mae West and Cary Grant

• Aug. 14: “My Man Godfrey” (1936), starring Carole Lombard and William Powell

• Aug. 21: “Private Lives” (1931), starring Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery

• Aug. 28: “Easy Living” (1937), starring Jean Arthur and Edward Arnold

Tickets for all four films are available for $80 for Athenaeum members and $100 for non-members. Individual movies are $22 for members and $27 for non-members. Popcorn is included with each ticket.

Accomando is aided in her efforts by Athenaeum Executive Director Christie Mitchell, communications manager Courtney Koenigsfeld and librarian Kathi Bower Peterson.

Peterson, whose responsibilities include ordering the films, has worked on the series since its inception. She praised Accomando for her curatorial efforts and pointed to the unique nature of this year’s theme.

“Since Beth Accomando began curating them, the series has become more thematically cohesive,” Peterson said. “She always focuses on a particular topic, such as films from one director, one film studio or a timely subject such as politics. This year is the first time that all the films come from the same decade.”

Peterson described this year’s focus on women in comedy as especially apt.

“It seems like too many people still hold the opinion that women aren’t truly funny,” she said. “These films should present a good counterargument to that.”

For Accomando, the series also is a way to preserve film history.

“We have to remember where we’ve been to appreciate where we are,” she said. “I just don’t want these films to be forgotten.”

For more information, visit ljathenaeum.org/events/flicks-25-series.