Soviet-Russian postcard. Photo: A. Manukyana / Lenfilm. Elena Solovey in Drama iz starinnoy zhizni/The Drama from Ancient Life (Ilya Averbakh, 1972).
Soviet-Russian postcard. Photo: A. Manukyana / Lenfilm. Elena Solovey and Tatyana Piletskaya in Drama iz starinnoy zhizni/The Drama from Ancient Life (Ilya Averbakh, 1972).
Soviet-Russian postcard by Leningradskoe otdenenie byuro propaganda sovetskogo kinoiskusstva. Photo: Mosfilm. Elena Solovey as Sophia in Neokonchennaya pyesa dlya mekhanicheskogo pianino/An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1977). The film was based on Anton Chekhov's 'Platonov', as well as several of his other short stories. In The Netherlands, the film was released at the time as Piano mécanique.
A dream of becoming an actress
Elena (also written as Yelena) Solovey was born Elena Yakovlevna Solovey in 1947, in Neustrelitz, East Germany. Her parents met in Berlin at the end of the Second World War. Her father, Yakov Solovey, was an artillery officer in the Red Army. Her mother was a medical nurse.
Young Elena lived in Germany until the age of 4, then moved to Novosibirsk, Siberian Russia, where her father continued his military career, then moved to Moscow. Elena had a dream of becoming an actress. She was fond of art, music, films, and theatre, and attended a music school in addition to her high school.
Eventually, she became a music teacher at a Moscow school, after failing to enter the Soviet State Institute of Cinema (VGIK). However, she was persistent and determined in pursuit of her dream, and a year later, she was admitted to VGIK, studied at the acting class of Boris Babochkin, graduating in 1970 as an actress.
Elena Solovey made her film debut in short films during the 1960s, while a VGIK student. In 1969 she played her first serious role as Clarice in Korol-olen/King Stag (1970) by director Pavel Arsyonov.
In 1970 she was invited to the troupe of Maly Theatre in Moscow. There Solovey was cast as Nina in 'The Seagull' by Anton Chekhov, albeit she followed her heart and married a Leningrad artist, Yuri Pugach, and the couple settled in Leningrad. There Solovey worked at Lenfilm Studios.
Soviet-Russian postcard, part of a series of black and white postcards on Elena Solovey, issued in 1984. Elena Solovey and Yuriy Yakovlev in Korol-olen/King Stag (Pavel Arsyonov, 1970).
Soviet-Russian postcard, part of a series of black and white postcards on Elena Solovey, issued in 1984. Photo: A. Manukyana / Lenfilm. Elena Solovey and Tatyana Piletskaya in Drama iz starinnoy zhizni/The Drama from Ancient Life (Ilya Averbakh, 1972).
Soviet-Russian postcard, part of a series of black and white postcards on Elena Solovey, issued in 1984. Photo: Mosfilm. Elena Solovey in Deti Vanyushina/ Vanyushin's Children (Evgeniy Tashkov, 1974).
Soviet-Russian postcard, part of a series of black and white postcards on Elena Solovey, issued in 1984. Photo: Mosfilm. Elena Solovey and Sergey Martynov in Kontsert dlya dvukh skripok/Concerto for Two Violins (Ekaterina Stashevskaya-Naroditskaya, 1975).
Soviet-Russian postcard, part of a series of black and white postcards on Elena Solovey, issued in 1984. Photo: Mosfilm. Elena Solovey in Raba lyubvi/Slave of Love (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1976).
Soviet-Russian postcard, part of a series of black and white postcards on Elena Solovey, issued in 1984. Photo: Mosfilm. Elena Solovey as Sophia in Neokonchennaya pyesa dlya mekhanicheskogo pianino/An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1977).
Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov
During the 1970s Elena Solovey played her best-known roles. She had her international breakthrough as Olga Vosnesenskaya (alluding to 1910s film star Vera Kholodnaya), opposite Rodion Nahapetov in Raba lyubvi/Slave of Love (1976). In 1918, at the height of the Bolshevik revolution, a small group of filmmakers are hurriedly trying to complete a silent melodrama while the world changes all around them. As production progresses, leading lady Elena Solovei metamorphoses from self-centered film star to committed revolutionary. With Slave of Love, director Nikita Mikhalkov gained his first serious international attention.
For Nikita Mikhalkov, Solovey also acted as Sofia opposite Aleksandr Kalyagin in Neokonchennaya pyesa dlya mekhanicheskogo pianino/An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1977), and as Olga opposite Oleg Tabakov in Neskolko dney iz zhizni I.I. Oblomova/Oblomov (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1980). In 1980 she received the award for best actress at the Oxford Film festival for Oblomov and in 1981 she won in Cannes the award for Best Supporting Actress for the Soviet-Lithuanian war film Faktas/Fakt/Fact (Almantas Grikevicius, 1981).
From 1983 till 1991 Elena Solovey was a member of the troupe at the Theatre of Lensoveta in St. Petersburg (Leningrad), Russia. There she appeared in leading and supporting roles in Russian and international stage production. Her last work on stage in St. Petersburg was the acclaimed production of 'Foto-finish' written and directed by Peter Ustinov. Ustinov cast Solovey as a co-star opposite Pyotr Shelokhonov as the male lead, supported by Anna Aleksakhina, Roman Gromadsky, and other notable Russian actors.
In the fall of 1991, Solovey emigrated from Russia and settled in New Jersey with her husband Yuri Pugach, two children, and a granddaughter. She appeared in Russian films, worked for Russian radio in New York, and played in several stage productions of 'Bluzhdayushcie zvezdy' (Wandering stars) troupe at the Russian area of Brighton Beach. In 2002 she played Branca Libinsk in three episodes of the TV series The Sopranos.
In 2007 she appeared in a supporting role as Kalina in We Own the Night (James Gray, 2007), a crime thriller about the Russian mafia starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and Eva Mendes. She also appeared in the drama The Immigrant (James Gray, 1013), starring Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jeremy Renner, which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Her most recent film with writer-director James Gray was the biographical adventure drama The Lost City of Z (James Gray, 2016), starring Charlie Hunnam and Robert Pattinson.
Since the 1990s Elena Solovey has been teaching children of Russian emigrants at 'Etude' acting school in New Jersey, USA. In 1981, Elena Solovey was designated People's Actor of Russia.
Soviet collectors card. Photo: Regimantas Adomaitis and Elena Solovey in Vragi/Enemies (Rodion Nahapetov, 1979).
Soviet-Russian postcard, part of a series of black and white postcards on Elena Solovey, issued in 1984. Photo: Mosfilm. Elena Solovey and Oleg Tabakov in Neskolko dney iz zhizni I.I. Oblomova/Oblomov (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1980).
Soviet-Russian postcard, part of a series of black and white postcards on Elena Solovey, issued in 1984. Photo: Mosfilm. Elena Solovey in Beshenye dengi/Easy Money (Evgeniy Matveev, 1982).
Soviet-Russian postcard, part of a series of black and white postcards on Elena Solovey, issued in 1984.
Soviet-Russian postcard, part of a series of black and white postcards on Elena Solovey, issued in 1984. Photo: Lenfilm. Elena Solovey in Blondinka za uglom/The Blonde Around the Corner (Vladimir Bortko, 1984).
Source: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
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