Ostium primus

Posted by jukkahoo

It is the season of opening doors (or in my case, the caps) from your advent calendar. Like last year, I thought that beer goes well with the wait for the Man in Red to make his appearance. Unlike last year, I won't be talking about films I've recently seen. No, this years calendar will focus on the world of television, since that is where most of the interesting stuff is happening.

Mind you, I may go with entertainment and the attainment of gratification over edumacation and edutainment. My opinions are my own and should not be seen as word of Dog. Although Mogens does have very strong opinions that one should take seriously. 

Today's beer is Belfast Bay's McGovern's Oatmeal Stout. Very dark colour, almost pitch black and the flavour lingers along that same dark line. Very roasty, bitter (but not too much), smooth stout. Lovely drink. Aftertaste is dark, a bit musty but pleasant. And then it gets a bit coffee-like? Great start for the calendar. Belfast Bay also brews a very nice red Lobster Ale.

The series of the day is Warehouse 13. It is one of the Syfy-series that have a tenuous connection with each others (Eureka, Alphas and W13). I like W13 (as I just started calling it for short) a LOT. It is fun, entertaining and galore of popular culture references. (Eureka is great too, but Alphas is a bore.)

W13 is a mixture of Indiana Jones, X-Files and romantic comedy. It's light and fluffy, not the least because of its brilliant casting choices, but it packs a lot of punch with its gallery of interesting guest characters (H. G. Wells, I'm talking about you!). Highy recommended if you want to spend time taking it easy and without the ever present "long arch of the show" bogging down the flow of the episodes. This is mainly artifact of the episode -kind of a show, but the script includes a lot of backstory and character interaction that carries from episode to episode. Four full seasons so far, with a six-episode fifth miniseason coming is 2014.

The arbitrary recommendation of the day is Lonkeropiirakan joulukalenteri. Yes, in Finnish, but this is another great seasonal calendar with a theme of 30 Day Film Challenge. Looking forward to their various choices. As to their first day's question, I fully support Grandpa Cthulhu's pick of Shichinin no samurai. It is a truly great movie and what he says about it is spot on, other than the fact that to me the action scenes are *not* clear, but very chaotic and *realistic* in that sense. Korppisusi has a very interesting choice, Aeon Flux. I cannot for the life of me remember that much from the film, but I'd be hard to call it a masterpiece.

My choice? Confidental Report (aka. Mr. Arkadin), surely.

Comments

[Korppisusi]

Thank you so much for the recommendation! We will be checking your calendar daily too, what a great theme! As for my conroversial choice, I have to point out one thing. The first question is not "best movie" but "favourite movie". There is a subtle but very important distiction there. I would not call Aeon Flux best movie ever or masterpiece. I think it is scifi chick-flick and that's why I love it :)

[Grandpa Cthulhu]

I still kinda stand behind my notion that the action scenes in Seven Samurai are clear, at least in a sense. At least I have this notion in my head that the action scenes are filmed with much more statically framed shots than most modern films.

Especially when compared films made recently which almost all seem to use shaky cam in their action scenes.

I'd also say that the action and violence in the films comes in these quick bursts, which can be chaotic and in that sense realistic. The duel scene in the beginning is a good example.

It has this beatifully shot slow intense build-up that ends very quickly. But you can still really see what happens and in that sense I still feel it's very clear.

Of course the big final battle is a bit different but it still has that quality of framing the shots carefully and the action being in bursts. It's admittedly more chaotic than scenes before but still I feel that you can much more easily figure out what's happening than with some modern films.

Anyhow, it's a great film. I'll have to admit that I haven't seen Confidental Report but now I'll be sure to add it to the never ending list of films to see.