The 32nd Midnight Sun Film Festival got off to a sunny start on Wednesday as the festival goers steadily began arriving at the familiar northern festival grounds.<\/p>\n
The festival celebrated Finland\u2019s 100th anniversary with a matinee that dealt with the history of Finnish cinema. During the matinee some of Finland\u2019s most highly regarded historians and cinema scholars discussed the rich legacy of Finnish filmmaking. The matinee culminated with reconstructions of two lost milestones of Finnish cinema: Teuvo Puro\u2019s<\/b> silent film Sylvi<\/i> from the 1910\u2019s and Nyrki Tapiovaara\u2019s<\/b> feature film Herra Lahtinen l\u00e4htee lipettiin<\/i> from the 1930\u2019s.<\/p>\n
As another early afternoon taster of the festival, The Big Tent hosted free screenings of two new documentary films on northern subjects: Petteri Saario\u2019s<\/b> Activist<\/i> and Antti Haase\u2019s <\/b>Illuminators.<\/i><\/p>\n
This year\u2019s opening screening at Lapinsuu featured Rainer Werner Fassbinder\u2019s <\/b>classic of post-war German cinema, The Marriage of Maria Braun, <\/i>which stars the brilliant Hanna Schygulla <\/b>who is one of this year\u2019s festival guests. Hobbyhorses took over The Small Tent, which hosted a screening of Selma Vilhunen\u2019s<\/b> internationally awarded \u00a0documentary film Hobbyhorse Revolution<\/i>.<\/p>\n
To the festival goers\u2019 delight, Esko Valtaoja<\/b> had picked Jean-Luc Godard\u2019s <\/b>French New Wave milestone La Chinoise <\/i>to be screened at the festival at The Big Tent. Mika Taanila<\/b> and Olaf M\u00f6ller <\/b>opened their series of Master Classes on Wednesday night with a screening of a series of short films concentrating on nuclear power.<\/p>\n