Draga Olteanu-Matei

Actress
Born: 24.10.1933 in Bucharest
Died: 18.11.2020 in Iași

A force of the comic nature, capable of making mountains and men knock their heads together, howling with a laughter that can make you cry. The entire repertoire of a simple person, all the jobs, all the expressions fit her perfectly. A confusing willingness which seems to have paralyzed the comedy writers who are supposed to make us laugh. The victory of the melodrama in Patima accuses them.” (Radu Cosaşu, Magazin estival 1977).
“Draga Olteanu is obedient to the temperament, just as the high tide and the low tide are influenced by the moon beams. This being obedient to her own tem
perament is a virtue in her and not a servitude, the way it is for the other people. The force of this actress has something like a torrent, something stormy, something from the evidence and the mystery of a natural phenomenon. She can play any character, but not just howsoever, but only with that extraordinary, painful tearing, which in the specialty argot is called composition. Draga Olteanu makes composition the way we, the common people breathe.” (Aurel Bădescu, Magazin special Cinema 1978)

Trivia

Until 1973 her name on the film credits was written Draga Olteanu.
She writes the screenplay of the film Patima in collaboration with the director George Cornea
In 2002 she receives the National Order of the Star of Romania in the rank of Knight.
In 2014, the Romanian Royal Family presented her with the Order of the “Crown of Romania” in the rank of Officer.

Draga Olteanu about...

…audience. “I have a great esteem for the audience. Not an abstract one, but a very specific one, in the sense that I don`t usually try to fool the viwers. Because the viewers can be fooled sometimes and the actor is tempted to do so.
In our theatre halls there is a huge generosity with the applauds. It`s enough for one person to start clapping and the rest of them will do the same. They applaud all the actors, including the one who really deserves it and the one who fools them.
In a way, the viewers are in our hands. We can cultivate them, we can cultivate a certain taste, but it also happens to stop them from discerning what is truly valuable from what is fake. So later it`s useless for us to come and say the audience doesn`t understand us, that it doesn`t appreciate the good quality art. First and foremost, we are the ones who should offer the people only valuable performances in order to help them form their good taste, so that they may later discern alone the good performances from the bad ones.

Back To:

Filmmaker's Page
AaRC > Filmmakers
AaRC > Home Page