Russian actress Yelena Solovey – perhaps one of the cinema actresses in the spirit of Chekhov. The actress with an amazing energy of fragility and inner truth. While studying she played various characters, but the greatest success came when she was starring as Juliet and Nina Zarechnaya. “Girl with a candle inside,” she was called by professor of Advanced Directing courses Paola Volkova. Yelena Solovey was born February 24, 1947 in Neustrelitz, Germany, into the family of a soldier. Her movie list consists of 55 films. 1981 Soviet war film Faktas directed by Almantas Grikevicius entered the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, where Yelena won the award for Best Supporting Actress.
Debut in the movie
Yelena Solovey debuted in the movie in 1967, when she started studying at Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography – in a short film of Rustam Khamdamov “In the mountains of my heart,” she played the daughter of a baker. In a rare interview Yelena Solovey gratefully says about this director, and the role she had played: “I think every artist should come up with the director. And Rustam – the man who invented Yelena. He saw me in some small perfomances, which we did in the Institute. And my first film was “In the mountains of my heart,” and I had a little episode. Then Rustam offered to me a role in “Late Flowers”, and this is how this woman with a strange voice appeared”.
Position of a strange woman out of this world as if stuck to this wonderful actress, but it was an oddity of a high class. This talented oddity, tragically unprotected from the brutal reality was featured in Olga Voznesenskaya, character of Nikita Mikhalkov’s 1976 “Slave of Love”, which became a classic of world cinema.
With an equally impressive skill Yelena Solovey played roles in the film “An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano” (1977), based on works by A.P. Chekhov and “A few days of life of I.I. Oblomov” (1980).
Yelena Solovey with her family settled in the United States
In 1991 Yelena Solovey with her family settled in the United States, in the small town of Fairview, served as the prototype village, where live the heroine of the famous series “Desperate Housewives.” At first, she was a housewife and she raised her grandchildren having no illusions about continuing film career. However, her acting talent found its incarnation. Besides working in Russian theaters and teaching Yelena Solovey had an amazing experience authoring the program “Backstage” on Russian radio in New Jersey. There she interviewed Russian actors and directors, read Bunin, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Also in 2001, Yelena Solovey created a children’s art studio “Etude” for children from Russian-speaking families, where classes on theater, art, music, dance, are taught in Russian.
The world of Yelena Solovey now – her husband, artist Yuri Pugach, who works in an art gallery. Yelena Solovey’s daughter Irina will soon be 35 years old, she lives with her husband in Leipzig (Germany), is engaged in microbiology. Irina has two children – the eldest granddaughter of Yelena Solovey Sonia is 16 years old, a small Grushenka (Agrafena) is 4 years old. Yelena Solovey’s son Paul lives in New York, he was 31. He’s just like a sister, a microbiologist and is preparing to defend his dissertation at Cornell University. Paul is married, his younger son and grandson of Yelena Ivan is 3 years old. All grandchildren speak Russian.
Yelena Solovey in the film ‘An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano’ (1977), based on works by A.P. Chekhov and “A few days of life of I.I. Oblomov” (1980).
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