The stigma of "non-Soviet appearance": Where did the beautiful actress from the movie "Straw Hat" disappear?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Today, hardly anyone remembers the name of this actress. Her film career lasted only 10 years, after which Evgenia Vetlova disappeared from the screens. She played only 2 main roles, but most of all she was remembered by the audience in the image of a beautiful singer from the duet of wandering musicians in the film "Straw Hat". It was Vetlova who could have played Katerina in the film “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears”, if not for her “non-Soviet” beauty. Her sudden disappearance gave rise to many rumors, and only years later it became known where she disappeared …

Evgenia Vetlova was born and raised in post-war Leningrad. Since childhood, she was versatilely gifted: she was engaged in gymnastics, became a master of sports, studied in choir and dance circles, attended a drama studio, and sang in a school ensemble. Even in childhood, she was included in the filing cabinet of the acting department of the Lenfilm film studio. Therefore, it was not a surprise for her loved ones when, after school, she was going to enter LGITMiK, and from the first attempt she succeeded.

While studying at the institute, Evgenia began performing on the stages of theaters. Komissarzhevskaya and them. Pushkin, even before admission she made her debut in the cinema. Her first job was an episode in the film "Republic of SHKID", then her name did not even get into the credits, but during the entrance exams she was approved for the lead role in the children's musical film "Fair Wind, Blue Bird!" The shooting took place on the open sea and turned out to be a real test for the young actress: an earthquake began, which provoked a strong storm. The girl also came in handy with her sports training - she performed a difficult trick (jumping from the mast of the schooner to the tarp stretched below) without an understudy.

Despite such a successful start in her acting career, her further creative destiny could hardly be called successful - Evgenia Vetlova was offered only episodic roles. The teachers of the institute did not welcome the participation of students in the filming, and during her studies she practically did not act in film. After graduation, Vetlova was enrolled in the staff of the film actor's studio at Lenfilm, but in the cinema she did not have any major notable work.

However, her interests were not limited only to theater and cinema. In the 1970s. she became interested in bardic songs, released several of her own discs and performed on stage with vocal numbers and programs. In addition, Vetlova has dubbed films.

Eugenia got a chance to combine her favorite activities and demonstrate both acting and vocal abilities in the film "Straw Hat", where she played the singer-minstrel. Together with Alexander Kolpashnikov, she performed several songs. Although the role was episodic, the blonde beauty was remembered by all viewers. It was this work that brought her wide popularity.

In 1979, her creative destiny could have changed dramatically - Vladimir Menshov invited her to audition for the main role in the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears." However, Vetlova did not get this role for the same reason that earlier the artistic council rejected her candidacy for the main roles in other films. The main obstacle was … the effective appearance of the actress! The management of the film studio considered that her beauty was not at all Soviet, on the screens she looked like a foreigner, and therefore she should not play the role of Katerina!

As strange as it may sound now, her beauty really became the main obstacle in Yevgenia Vetlova's film career. According to the film studio officials, she did not correspond to the type of “Soviet woman”. Perhaps, if Vetlova's career began not in the 1970s, but a decade later, her film career would have developed in a completely different way.

Although Evgenia Vetlova did not get the main role in the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", at the same time fate gave her another chance, no less happy. In 1978, the actress married a musician from the GDR, Matthias Jan, who studied in the USSR. Together they began performing as a duet "Zhenya and Matias" at concerts of the film actor's studio, student gatherings and youth festivals.

After 2 years, Evgenia Vetlova and her husband moved to Berlin for permanent residence. There they continued to perform, performing songs of famous world chansonniers and popular Russian songs in German. They were often invited to radio and television. In the second half of the 1980s. Evgenia Vetlova began acting in German TV series and feature films. In total, she played about 30 roles in Soviet cinema and about 40 in German.

In 1990, she and her husband opened their own music studio, wrote music for films and television programs. In the 1990s. Vetlova tried her hand as a teacher and director. She taught at the Berlin School of the Arts and became the artistic director of the Belcampo theater group. In the 2000s. Vetlova taught the “Theater” seminar at the University of Potsdam, gave private lessons in acting, was a teacher at the European Theater Institute and art director and stage director of the “Open Monuments Day” project in Berlin. Since 2016, Evgenia Vetlova has been teaching acting at the Reduta-Berlin School of Theater and Cinema. In addition, she participated in the preparation of audio tours of museums around the world as a director, editor, announcer and translator.

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