Thursday, August 29, 2024
8 PM

Last up is Election (1999), starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick, on August 29. Accomando said, “Although not about politics as we generally think of it, Alexander Payne's comic look at a high school election provides a painfully funny look at some of the worst qualities human beings can display. The laughs come at a brutal cost but this film is just so wickedly good. Witherspoon has never been better than as the ruthlessly ambitious Tracy Flick and Matthew Broderick is pathetically hilarious as the well-intentioned but woefully mismatched nemesis to Flick.”

Thursday, August 22, 2024
8 PM

The Candidate (1972), showing August 22, not only boasts Robert Redford at his most gorgeous, but as the Radio Times wrote, “Robert Redford's engaging performance here breathes fresh life into the all-power-corrupts theme, and the sharply observed situations won an Oscar for scriptwriter Jeremy Larner.” Accomando wrote, “An idealistic, Kennedy-like character, Bill McKay [Redford], who is asked to run for U.S. Senate against an incumbent conservative candidate that is assured victory . . . is told he can do whatever he wants because there is no way he can win.” The ending begs to differ.

Thursday, August 15, 2024
8 PM

Next up is Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) on August 15. For a glimpse of discomfort, check out YouTube to see actors, like Audrey Hepburn, announce this multinominated film at the 1965 Oscars. The Washington Post wrote, “If The Manchurian Candidate is the era’s finest Cold War thriller, Dr. Strangelove is its most lacerating comedy, one that still cuts deep as a funhouse mirror version of hubris, belligerence, and staggering self-deception.” Accomando said, “This film is sheer perfection from the black and white photography to the pitch-perfect casting.”

Thursday, August 8, 2024
8 PM

The series begins Thursday, August 8, with The Great McGinty (1940). Vanity Fair wrote, “Preston Sturges’s only Academy Award win was for penning this satirical take on corrupt political machines. Told through a series of flashbacks, . . . a bartender in an unnamed Latin American country explains [his rise from a life on the street] to low-level party stooge to a winning reform candidate. Sturges’s air-tight screenplay was sold to Paramount for 10 dollars on the condition he could make it his directorial debut.”

Thursdays, August 8, 15, 22 & 29, 2024
8 PM

The Athenaeum's outdoor movie series, Flicks on the Bricks makes it possible for you to enjoy classic movies that you love while enjoying the beautiful summer night on the patio of the Athenaeum. In August, film critic and scholar Beth Accomando will return to host Flicks on the Bricks. This year, she has chosen four political comedies.

Thursday, August 31, 2023
8 PM

Cast: starring Ryan O’Neal and Barbra Streisand; director, Peter Bogdanovich

Runtime: 1 hr. 34 min.

Tagline: A screwball comedy. Remember them?

The accidental mix-up of four identical plaid overnight bags leads to a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations.

Thursday, August 24, 2023
8 PM

Cast: starring James Dean and Natalie Wood; director, Nicholas Ray

Runtime: 1 hr. 51 min.

Tagline: ...and they both came from 'good' families!

A rebellious young man with a troubled past comes to a new town, finding friends and enemies.

Thursday, August 17, 2023
8 PM

‎Cast: starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall; director, Howard Hawks

Runtime: 1 hr. 40 min.

Tagline: At Last! Bogart makes love his kind of woman!

During World War II, American expatriate Harry Morgan helps transport a French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sensuous lounge singer.

Thursday, August 10, 2023
8 PM

Cast: starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland; director, Michael Curtiz

Runtime: 1 hr. 42 min.

Tagline: The Best Loved Bandit Of All Time!

When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence in 1190s England, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a resistance movement.

Thursdays, August 10, 17, 24 & 31, 2023
8 PM

In August, film critic and scholar Beth Accomando will return to host Flicks on the Bricks. This year we’re celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Warner Brothers studio, and Beth has a stellar lineup of films to showcase the studio’s long history of American filmmaking.

The Athenaeum's outdoor movie series, Flicks on the Bricks makes it possible for you to enjoy classic movies that you love while enjoying the beautiful summer night on the patio of the Athenaeum. 

Thursday, August 25, 2022
8 PM

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“She's gay! She's glamorous! She's glorious! Leave it to Lubitsch to make her Paris love affair the slickest, slyest romance you've ever howled at!” (Print Ad—Greene County Examiner-Recorder, ((Catskill, NY)) 7 December 1939)

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Only the royal suite at the grandest hotel in Paris has a safe large enough for the jewels of the Grand Duchess Swana. So the three Russians who have come to sell the jewels settle into the suite until a higher ranking official is dispatched to find out what is delaying the sale. She is Ninotchka, a no-nonsense woman who fascinates Count Leon who had been the faithful retainer of the Grand Duchess. The Grand Duchess will give up all claim to the jewels if Ninotchka will fly away from the count.

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Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes

Cast: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, and Ina Claire

Thursday, August 18, 2022
8 PM

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“Marriage is a beautiful mistake that two people make together!” (Print Ad—Rochester Times-Union, ((Rochester NY)) 8 November 1932)

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High class European thief Gaston Monescu meets his soul mate Lily, a pickpocket masquerading as a countess. The two join forces and come under the employ of Mme. Colet, the beautiful owner of the Colet perfume company. Gaston works as Mme. Colet's personal secretary under the alias Monsieur La Valle. Rumors start to fly as 'M. La Valle' steals Mme. Colet away from her other suitors. When the secret of his true identity catches up to him, Gaston is caught between the two beautiful women.

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Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Runtime: 1 hour 23 minutes

Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, and Herbert Marshall

Thursday, August 11, 2022
8 PM

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“Girls are checking up on MAURICE CHEVALIER—and finding him cute and sweet” (Print ad—Sunday Tribune, ((Manila, P.I.)) 19 June 1932)

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An unhappily married couple try to come between a happy one.

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André and Colette Bertier are happily married. But Mitzi, an old school chum of Colette's, resurfaces out of the blue. As her marriage is on the rocks she has no better idea than to seduce André. André tries hard to resist but what could he do with that Mitzi? Colette decides to be revenged thanks to Adolph, André's friend, who yearns for her. Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald are captivating in this sparkling marital comedy enhanced by lilting tunes and the magical Lubitsch touch.

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Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Runtime: 1 hour 18 minutes

Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, and Genevieve Tobin

Thursdays, August 11, 18 & 25, 2022
8 PM

The Athenaeum’s popular film series, Flicks on the Bricks, returns in August for its 16th year with The Lubitsch Touch. Guests are invited to join us on the outdoor patio for balmy summer nights and screenings of classic cinema al fresco. Series tickets for the open-air theater include three memorable films. This year the film series are curated and presented by KPBS film critic, arts reporter, and host of the Cinema Junkie podcast, Beth Accomando. She also programs films for Film Geeks San Diego.

Thursday, August 26, 2021

Must be 21+

Two great lovers of the screen in the grandest of romantic comedies!

Oscar winner about a runaway heiress on the lam from her father, and the reporter on her trail. As they travel northward and engage in a series of misadventures, the gruff newspaperman and the spoiled young lady begin to fall for each other.

Director: Frank Capra

Runtime: 105 minutes

Cast: Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable, Walter Connolly, Jason Thomas, Roscoe Karns

Winner of the Academy Awards: Best Picture (Columbia), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Clark Gable), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Claudette Colbert), Best Director (Frank Capra), and Best Writing, Adaptation (Robert Riskin)

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Must be 21+

Romance, hilarity, thrills, surprises in the hit of the year with Barrymore at his best and Lombard at her loveliest! (Print Ad-Buffalo Evening News, ((Buffalo, NY)) 24 May 1934)

A satire of the theater world in which a down-on-his-luck Broadway impresario tries to land a popular actress, a former flame whom he turned into a star years before, to take the lead in his comeback play that he hopes will put him back on top. The Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur script is adapted from their Broadway play of the same name.

Director: Howard Hawks

Runtime: 94 minutes

Cast: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Roscoe Karns, Walter Connolly, Ralph Forbes

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Must be 21+

The raciest love battle in years! A wild, witty whirlwind of hysterics..! (Print Ad-Meriden Daily Journal, ((Meriden, Conn.)) 21 February 1940)

Rewrite of the Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play "The Front Page" is about a newspaper editor who goes to extraordinary lengths to keep his best reporter (who is also his ex-wife) from remarrying in a desperate attempt to win her back.

Director: Howard Hawks

Runtime: 92 minutes

Cast: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Gene Lockhart, Helen Mack, Ralph Bellamy

Thursdays, August 12–26, 2021

Must be 21+

The Athenaeum’s popular film series, Flicks on the Bricks, returns in August for its 15th year with the best Screwball Sparring Matches. Guests are invited to join us on the outdoor patio for balmy summer nights and screenings of classic cinema al fresco. Series tickets for the open-air theater include three memorable films. This year the film series are curated and presented by KPBS film critic, arts reporter, and host of the Cinema Junkie podcast, Beth Accomando. She also programs films for Film Geeks San Diego.