BETALEVEL » screening

Bollywood Night

sdeyoe — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 03:00:13 +0000

Devdas
Thursday, August 25
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

We round out our month of Bollywood Nights with a big one! The story of Devdas has been filmed eight times but the 2002 Shahrukh Khan/Aishwarya Rai version is pretty much universally considered the classic. The most expensive Bollywood film ever made at the time of its release, you can be assured that there will be plenty of lavish sets and elaborate song and dance numbers.

Yet Devdas is not all lightness and joy. Quite the contrary, it is a tale of love gone wrong. When the titular Devdas and his childhood sweetheart Paro miss their opportunity for a life together, she ends up falling into a marriage of convenience and he takes refuge in a brothel and, eventually, finds solace in a bottle. So, yes, it’s a tragedy, but it’s an epic tragedy — big, bright, Bollywood-style!

Bollywood Night

sdeyoe — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:00:25 +0000

Gulaal
Thursday, August 18
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

This week’s film is rather simple: a naive young man goes to law school and falls in with a bad crowd… who turn out to be militant nationalist separatists that want to discard democracy and return power to the royal bloodline. Other than that, this film doesn’t have much. Besides a love triangle. Or two. Maybe more of a love hexagon? And then there is the separatist leader’s brother, who idolizes John Lennon and sings only the truth. And the tabla player, an Ardhanarishvara figure (Google it!) in stark red and blue (or is that red, white, and blue?). Oh, yeah, and the many references to American politics and foreign policy. And the reference to Batman. Or maybe it is not supposed to be a reference to Batman, but it kind of is a reference to Batman anyway. Okay, the movie has a lot going on in it; Bollywood likes to give you your money’s worth. And this screening is free — and we’ll probably have snacks — so you are totally making out like a bandit.

Bollywood Night

sdeyoe — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:30:40 +0000

Yaadon Ki Baaraat
Thursday, August 11
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

It is far too easy to describe a Bollywood film by its stilted acting, its wacko fashions, its baroque plot twists, or its outrageous song and dance numbers. Sure, they pretty much all have all of that (and this film is no exception), but to focus on those things is merely to succumb to a kind of cross-cultural misreading. For the implication is that Bollywood manages to touch us despite those things. But all movies use conventions and clichés to condense a slice of the human experience into a manageably short duration. Life doesn’t have jump cuts nor slow motion explosions nor (iPods notwithstanding) soundtracks, yet we accept all of these devices as part of a “realistic” narrative structure. The story isn’t told despite these conventional shorthands but rather through them. Bollywood is no different. Yet our cultural position in relation to it is different and thus the conventions seem unnatural. This is not to say that Indian films strive for “realism” — that would be ridiculous. But merely to urge that we not confuse the form for the content.

The Bollywood classic Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973) tells the story of three brothers who are separated after witnessing the murder of their parents at the hands of a local villain. They grow up to be a musician, a thief, and an incorrigible ladies’ man. Yet they are driven by a need to reunite and avenge their parents’ death. It is not about bad wigs, thick glasses, acid trip set design, or the amusingly on-the-nose band name Monto and His Avengers (though, again, it has all of those). Those are merely its techniques for getting at the same thing most Bollywood films explore: the struggle to be a moral being in a world of disinterested misfortune.

Sounds heavy, right? Well, it’s heavy stuff. But thankfully we have all those framing devices to entertain us along the way. And entertain they do.

Please note: Given that Bollywood actually feels slightly less urge on the whole to condense (here we have a 2 hour 45 minute duration), we will start the film this week at 8:30pm SHARP. Arrive on time or forever wonder what Aamir Khan looked like as a little boy.

Bollywood Night

sdeyoe — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:00:37 +0000

Love Aaj Kal
Thursday, August 4
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

By popular demand, Bollywood Night is back — for one month only. Every Thursday in August, Betalevel will be your best source for love triangles, disapproving parents, cruel twists of fate, and elaborate song and dance numbers!

As Bollywood becomes an increasingly mainstream, worldwide commodity, the films it produces have likewise become more worldly, less distinctly Indian. The settings, the costumes, the music, all have gradually shifted to a distinctly (or, all too often, blandly) Western aesthetic. They even have onscreen kisses now. Sometimes.

Love Aaj Kal has it somewhat both ways, however, by telling two parallel stories: one, a modern tale of transcontinental love, from London to Delhi to San Francisco; the other, a more innocent memory of long-distance love from a previous generation. Yet, though the attitudes and the fashions of 2009 and 1965 may be different, love remains basically unchanged.

Warning: Our lawyers inform us that we must disclose the fact that this movie stars two of the most attractive actors in Bollywood (or anywhere) today (or ever), Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone. Attendees waive all claims against Betalevel for damage to their eyes, their hearts, or their self-images.

Also: This movie was co-produced by Khan’s production company, Illuminati Films. There is therefore an 11% chance the whole thing somehow plays a part in the global conspiracy. Further study is required.

TRON

jason — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:46:00 +0000

Tron. The Real One.
Friday December 17 at 8:30pm
Free

In 1982, the very concept of digital information as the foundation of our identity was some deeply subversive shit, so of course the movie that described our eventual fate was buried at the box office by E.T.

Fast-forward three decades and the kids who were in to Tron now have your identity stored on a thumb-drive. But all you have are a hacked Gizmodo account and some deeply confused feelings about Drew Barrymore.

This Friday night, you COULD wait in massive lines for your very own set of three-dee glasses to enhance your personal slice of pop electronica corporate blockbuster fun times. Or, you could come to a basement in Chinatown to try and figure out just what the hell happened. Because we will be watching the REAL Tron.

Possible themed drinks.

Possible bleepy-bloopy musical homage.

Possible realtime exegesis of gnostic techno-mythologies as they unfold on-screen.

Keanu Night

sdeyoe — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:00:43 +0000

My Own Private Idaho
Thursday, January 21
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

They live on the streets, do drugs, and sell themselves to men and women. Mike is quiet, gay, and suffers from narcolepsy. Abandoned as a child, he is obsessed with finding his long-lost mother. Scott is the rebellious son of a high-ranking family, who lives this life mostly to embarrass his father. Mike is in love with Scott, who still maintains he is straight and insists that his wild lifestyle on the streets is only temporary. Together, they embark on a quest to find Mike’s mother, traveling from Portland to Idaho to Italy.

…And, to set the mood for the evening, prior to the feature we’ll show excerpts from an episode of the BBC television program Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends in which Theroux travels to Idaho and meets right-wing patriots who are preparing for a global catastrophe.