was a golden era for the cinemas in Helsinki. An example: "In the 1970s Bresson's films brought in more money in Helsinki than in Paris." Peter von Bagh continues: "Many archives have fallen for easy baits and an emphasis on fashionable films. That is the best way to lose an audience whose confidence can only be won through a patient building process. Officials equipped with short-sighted calculations may find it difficult to understand why a small archive would order a rare film from a distant country for one screening only. Calculations like this easily paralyzes socio-cultural activities altogether. The discrepancy hangs in the air, written in fiery letters: the audience seems to be drooling after de Palma and Eastwood, although an inner voice calls you to screen bodies of works scrutinizing the output of Victor Sjöström and Carl Th. Dreyer... The first screening of Victor Sjöström or Carl Th. Dreyer might bring in fifteen people, but after five years and some more efforts there will be a full house. The preservation prints of an early Yevgeni Bauer film, or Maurice Tourneur's The Wishing Ring (which would be almost nothing in 16 mm or in video) will look just miraculous to any public that comes in – and there will be one once you build a place where everyone can trust that miracles take place, almost on daily basis. --. In the beginning a film maybe a complete unknown but the visiting card it leaves behind remains forever: a wonderful beauty." In the same speech, von Bagh defines the responsibilities of the archives: preservation of a confidential relationship with the audience, protection and restoration of the classics, and especially domestic films, and supportto film clubs as a common film bank which makes the screenings possible. Works Films Early short films Pockpicket – Recollections of a Helsinki Bourgeois Youth (with Pentti Maisala, 1968) Vanhan valtaus (Bagh–Toiviainen–Maisala–Katainen, 1968) December (1969) Feature films The Count ("Kreivi") (1971) Feature-length documentaries for theatrical distribution Viimeinen kesä 1944 (1992) Vuosi 1939 (1993) TV productions Olavi Virta (1972) Paavo Nurmi – The Man and His Times (with Markku Koski, 1978) Sinitaivas – matka muistojen maisemaan (1978) Fragments of the life of Reino Helismaa (1979) Tankavaaran Travolta (1979) Vuosi 1952 (1980) Tapsa – Slashes from a Rover's Life (1980) Laulajan lähtö (1980) Tauno Palo (1981) Väliasemalla Veikko Lavi (1982) A Day at the Grave of Karl Marx (1983) Suomi