In 2017, the actress received the award for overall contribution to the film industry in our country
After 56 years of work in cinema and over 40 films (including television) in 2017, Tatiana Lolova finally received the Golden Rose Award. But not for a specific role, but for “overall contribution to the film industry in our country.”
I say finally, because all these years the film directors slightly turned their backs on Tanya Lolova and did not make the most of her great talent.
In front of the camera she can play everything, but she is the strongest in comedy roles. But in Bulgaria, comedies are written by men, with male characters and male directors.
Because of this, Tanya’s biggest rival and friend – Stoyanka Mutafova, has little involvement in cinema. Both great primates caught up in the theater. Tanya will go down in history as the first actress hired at the Satirical Theater. And Stoyanka – as the actress with the longest experience on his stage.
Mutafova does not have a single award for a film role, Lolova has only one – for her participation in a TV film. In 1992 she won the award for female role for Angelina in the film “Adventure” at the festival “Golden Chest” in Plovdiv.
In her memoir “1/2 Life” Lolova writes that she is a film artist because she is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers (SBFD). When I asked her if this was true, she said: “Well, when someone asks me which films I’ve been in and I can’t list many films … this membership in SBFD comes enough.”
One year this same SBFD conducted something like a survey of the artists’ wishes for it. And Tanya Lolova modestly writes: “I want SBFD to make me the Bulgarian Lillian Gish …” I will only remind you that Gish was called the First Lady of American cinema.
And while Lillian Gish is shooting with David W. Griffith himself, in Bulgaria Rangel Valchanov himself tells the young Tanya Lolova that there is no chance in cinema, because he is … without eyebrows. Years ago, the actress admitted to me that this offended her a lot.
And Rangel not only tells her that there is no chance in cinema, but also demonstrates it in practice. One fine day in 1955, Rangel Valchanov, a young, handsome and just graduated director, also met the young, beautiful and just graduated actress Tatiana Lolova: “Abe, we will make a film, I want you to read the script. You will choose what role you want … ”
And what happens?
MONOLOGUE 1 by Lolova:
It was about “Two Wins”, where he played as an actor, but was also a second director. There were scenes in which the main character is in a swimsuit and her body is like a fish. I guess with a good sense of humor, Rangel wanted to see how I would choose the main character with the body of a fish.
His malice was in vain, because he did not see me in a swimsuit, and I was then exactly with the body of a fish, a little bigger, but a fish. I just walked very badly dressed. That’s why I think they reproach in vain those directors who make actresses undress in swimsuits when choosing performers.
There was also a very small episodic role, where a very fat girl is made to sing solo, but first she has to sing the music ladder and it sounds very fake.
I wasn’t as fat as Rangel saw me, but I could sing fake because I have good hearing, and that’s absolutely necessary to play fake singing. However, I went to Ruse, where the energy of this director and a friend, whom I will always love, reached, at least because he made “The Varnished Shoes of the Unknown Warrior”, because in the Czech Republic they were a little kinder to me, because still I am still a compatriot of Rangel Valchanov and because of about a thousand other things.
He is the director who said that I will never see a movie because I have no eyebrows. It was not about the body of a fish, it was not about singing, I just don’t have eyebrows and those who don’t have eyebrows don’t shoot them in Bulgarian cinema. This doesn’t matter at all in world cinema, but since I was born in Bulgaria and one of my potential directors is called Rangel Valchanov, my chances are nil …
In 2007, I managed to reconcile Tanya and Rangel to some extent. Then, in an interview, the director told me: “It was just a joke. Otherwise, Tancheto and I are very good friends. I deeply regret that she did not act in my films. But it’s not my fault, or maybe it’s the Bulgarian cinema that provided us with such plots. Otherwise, for me Tanya is one of our greatest actresses, from 100 kilometers it is obvious that she is a great thing. So tell her that I kiss her on the forehead and especially on her eyebrows, which I love very much! … ”
we can start
with the beginning of the film career of the longest-legged Bulgarian actress. Tanya was 26 years old when Binka Zhelyazkova shot her in her first film – “And We Were Young”. The role is miniature – Lolova is the girl with chewing gum who just has to go in front of the camera. The director is shooting 18 (!) Doubles, and the debutante is stunned by her requirements: “But now you’re fussing a lot. But you still have to frolic a little here. But you don’t have to go so far. But you still have to notice yourself … ”
A few more episodic roles for Lolova follow. In “The Last Round” (1961) she is a wife, a wife in “Incredible Story” (1964). It is shot in small roles by the supporter of grotesque cinema in our country Georgi Stoyanov. In The Painleve Case (1968) is cousin Mina, and in Birds and Greyhounds (1969) is Mrs. Kavradkova, a member of the Animal Welfare Charitable Society. In “The Five from Moby Dick” (1970) she is already a mother, appearing only in 2-3 frames.
In 1971, the entire socialist camp released the film “Goya, or the Hard Way of Knowledge” – co-produced by the GDR, USSR, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. The screenplay was written by Angel Wagenstein, directed by Konrad Wolf, played by Goya – Donatas Banionis. Tanya Lolova she is still in a cameo role, but she is Queen Maria Louise of Bourbon herself, and I think Lolova’s stories about the preparation and shooting of this film are more interesting than the film itself.
They shot the test scenes at the Cinema Center and sent them to Leningrad for approval. Tanya says that a few days later a telegram came from there with the following text:
“We are looking for
monster but not
just like that ”
He added: “It didn’t offend me at all, but Angel was very angry, because it was a matter of prestige for him, since it is a proposal that comes from him …”
Wagenstein decided to take her to Leningrad to see her live. As a disciplined person, Lolova went to the Satirical Theater to ask permission from the director Zhelcho Mandadjiev. He tells him that he must go to Leningrad for three days. He hears Velingrad and allows. In the end, Lolova gets the role.
MONOLOGUE 2
– Then it so happened that I was invited to the premiere in the GDR. I was in a beautiful Lada dress, long, the color of overripe watermelon. Angel had warned me, “Look, you’re going five for four, but at the premiere, try to be decent.” Even we went to West Berlin together for a few hours and with all my money I bought a lovely pearl wig.
When they said: “In the role of the queen – Tatiana Lolova, Bulgaria – I went out with the dress, the wig, slender, young and beautiful. Since there was some difference between that monster on the screen and this live actress, first there was a pause, in which a “Aaaa” was gradually heard and then a crazy applause, which I then gave entirely to Bulgaria, which has so many wonderful actresses. And I was very proud … ”
Finally, in 1973, a Bulgarian film was released, in which the name of Tanya Lolova was recorded as the performer of the main female role. This is “Poor Summer”, in which, however, Georgi Parcalev is present in almost every frame. Tanya said that the film was shot by “a very nice, restrained, beautiful and talented director – Milen Nikolov-Mecho.” And she is grateful to him that he noticed her and invited her to partner with great artists such as Parcalev, Ivan Kondov, Itsko Finci, Leda Taseva, Milen Penev …
After “Poor Summer”, the directors seem to start shooting it more often. In bigger and smaller characters, but she has already mastered the magic of the episodic role – to play it so that it is remembered.
And she proves it in “The Last Bachelor” (1974), where she is Todor Kolev’s malicious mother-in-law, “Cricket in the Ear” (1976) – a new meeting with Georgi Stoyanov, who photographed her as the powerful midwife Bella.
You can’t help but remember her in the iconic comedy “Warm”, in which she is the manager of the district heating unit and demonstrates legs as if made on a very modern lathe and looking at them, one has the feeling that they do not end anywhere.
Tanya played the famous role in “Bon Chance, Inspector”, where she partnered with Velko Kanev for the first time. Her name is Elza Karadushieva and she is the mother of Yosif Sarchadjiev.
MONOLOGUE 3
I wonder when they say I’m not for sexy roles. That if this is the question, the sexiest role in Bulgarian cinema belongs to me personally and, of course, to the wonderful actor Velko Kanev, his little finger. It is about “Bon Chance, Inspector” by Petar Donev. The highly erotic scene took place during the soundtrack and entirely at my suggestion. I did a striptease behind the set, that is, my heroine took things off one by one, actually taking off her jewelry and giving out some sighs and additional words, which were purely my improvisation. The team went crazy with laughter and I was shaking all the time that their giggles would enter the record and spoil the scene, which is not just erotic, but it’s porn. ”
The last film in which Lolova participated before 1989 was “The Prince’s 13th Bride” (1987) – a very funny comedy by Ivanka Grubcheva, shot in Sofia and in the German city of Karlmarktstadt. In this film, Lolova has the most problems with her screen husband Pavel Poppandov, but behind the scenes. He is the royal magician, she is his wife, also a sorceress. “Not to mention a witch,” says Tanya.
According to her, then Poppandov had fallen into a period of insane wit. Even Georgi Mamalev sometimes sweats while reacting appropriately to Poppand’s geyser from jokes and banter.
Once, while eating a sausage in her movie clothes in a beautiful castle, Lolova asks a five-year-old girl:
“Mom, is this a real hex?” (Hexe – witch in German).
– Yes, real, the mother answers.
Lolova plucks a feather from her shaggy dress and presents it to the girl.
In the first years after 1989, Tanya, like many of her colleagues, starred in foreign productions that are made in our country. Such are “The Maternity Talk” (1991) – France, the Russian “Bandit Tale” and “Makarov” (1993), “Don Quixote Returns” (1996) – Russian-Bulgarian production, “Murder Bureau” (1997) – co-production of France, Belgium and Canada.
Then things on the horizon become clearer. Bulgarian films began to be shot, some as co-productions, and time for new artistic performances of the actress. In “Conversation with Birds” (1997) she is in the lead role – she plays a village grandmother. In “After the End of the World” (1998), written by Angel Wagenstein, she is Jewish –
Baba Mazal, forced
to tolerate drunks
cracks of her husband Avram (Vasil Mihailov).
He also plays in “Journey to Jerusalem”, “Fly with Rosinant”, the infamous “Goodbye, Mom”, “Bulgarian Rhapsody”. In “Barter” is the blind Flora, and in “Lily the Fish” is a witch.
Lolova is also filmed in several TV series. In “Ganyo Balkanski Returns from Europe” is Grebenarova, in “The Adventures of a Harlequin” is Murdzhova, and in “The English Neighbor” is Grandma Mara, the neighbor of the Englishman John.
Between 2011 and 2013, he starred in 86 series of “House Arrest.” She is Amy’s mother – a powerful mother-in-law who drives crazy not only her son-in-law but also her own daughter.
Our death took her when she and Orlin Goranov were preparing to shoot a video for a song.
The song is called “Love”. Great title for the end of a rich life full of talent and love …
– .
