This year, on August 28, 2023, actress Velta Lina’s 100th birthday would have passed. For many, the first associations about the actress are connected with her expressive eyes and important roles in films.
“Of course, the eyes, absolutely, and also the laugh. At least that’s what I remember from the long strings she’s played that I’ve seen. Then the laugh is extremely expressive. But the eyes, of course, the most.
Also, when she played the final role in 2004, Mrs. Kocins, in the play that Alfred Jaunušan staged as his last work, Eduard Wolff’s “Sensation”, she didn’t have to say much there – she came up and even from the other balcony her eyes were visible,” said Siliņš.
It was Līne’s special talent – to use her eyes extremely expressively, so that at times they were even too distracting, he assessed.
On August 28, a large-format photo exhibition “Velta Līne lomās” was opened at the Eduards Smilļgas Theater Museum of the Latvian Academy of Culture. If you just pass by the Theater Museum, you can see 18 large-format photos of the actress in various roles outside, even in the rain.
“Now, when we exhibit in the museum those 18 large-format photographs of Līna in roles, the one in which she is together with Zhanni Katlap, in the role of Kristine, it is completely unimaginable, this photograph absolutely shines even at night [spožo acu dēļ]” said Silins.
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Although Līne did not come from a wealthy family that would regularly go to the theater, it is known that the future actress has admired Latvian and international actresses since childhood.
“She was in the theater for the first time when she was only 13 years old, because she came from Grīziņkalns, and it was not an extremely wealthy family, because her father was a worker. A very caring worker, extremely caring for his family, but for him the theater… He was taken care of by his older brothers, they could go to the cinema, but she has been cutting out pictures from newspapers and magazines since she was seven years old, and she has been imagining, enraptured,” said Siliņš.
He assessed that the expressive pictures in the newspapers must have inspired Lini a lot, because in her character as an actress, she later adopted many features. Due to the war, Līne did not finish the acting studies of the Riga People’s Theater, but after the war she was quickly noticed and ended up at the Drama Theater.
“She didn’t finish the People’s Theater studio during the war, but she was very quickly accepted at the Drama Theater, where, as we know, after the war, Vera Baļuna was there, who brought up her students. Velta Līne came into her sight, and in fact, what Vera Baļuna gave her , the same Kaivu [Kaivas lomu Arvīda Griguļa lugā “Māls un porcelāns”] with which she was immediately seen…
She was awarded as a young actress already in the third year. It’s surprising,” admitted Silins.
Right at the beginning of her career, there was a lot of excitement about the actress and she received a wide range of awards for several very important roles. In 1957, Līne married Gunāras Cilinski, with whom she also collaborated on stage, for example, in 1959, when she played in Žan Katlap’s “Hamlet”.
“After that, immediately in that period, with an absolutely different image – such a lyrical, fateful young woman – she got the wonderful role of Roze in Pēteris Pētersons’ production. Pēteris Pētersons writes Rozi for her in the production “I’m 30 years old”. Fascinating, but still when she was celebrating “For 50 years, and she played that role at the age of 39, she played the fragment of Rose in the Drama Theater. Because it is such a fateful role, her character is an unusual character, she is different, sometimes immoral, she does not fit into the ideal of a Soviet person,” Siliņš said.
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Līne stood out for her diversity, for her ability to play the most diverse, contrasting roles, and that is why her portrayal in “Cirulīši” is most strongly remembered by many.
“The theater already has that one period, but after that there aren’t that many roles, but the one she played at the end of her life – in Kublinski’s Zuzannu, or later in “Pie Zelta ezera” together with Jaunušanas – it was a model lesson ,” said Silins.
Actress Dita Lūriņa-Egliena also shared her memories of Velta Līna: “Her famous sharp tongue, of course. Wit. Those insanely beautiful eyes. Of course, I think the most important thing is energy. That very, very effervescent, bubbly, such beautiful champagne. A bit sharp, a bit sweet, a bit like that… Yes, it’s energy. It’s a force that emanates from a person.”
“She was wonderful a whistleblower, as we say in the theater. She taught, so to speak, by joking that grass does not grow. And it’s very cool to joke that everyone laughs. A witty woman, that’s why she played Ranevska,” director Indra Roga recalled.
The last role of the actress – Faina Ranevska – was in the play “Two Hearts”. “Velta was one of the best students at the age of 80. She was absolutely precise, perfect, deceptive, creative. She was ready with a stopwatch monologue, which she spoke for 20 minutes, to make it 8 minutes. She was not afraid at the age of 80 “Well, maybe she was afraid, through doubts, all this is already happening, but at the age of 80, she completely changed her role. From a beautiful lover to a Ranevska, who is even masculine in some sense,” said the director.
2023-08-28 13:27:51
#actress #expressive #eyes #balcony #Veltas #Līna
