She showed her talent before she was even an adult, before she understood what acting was, bringing, with her “different” beauty for the time, a breath of fresh air to the movie studios, upsetting the audience. Elena Nathanael, entering the field of entertainment as a little girl, had to face the “National Star” Aliki Vougiouklakis, Jenni Karezis and her slightly older, Zoe Laskaris, who had already become a huge success. The space left for her was not particularly large, for the size of Greek cinematography, but she will manage to penetrate and stand out, be adored and leave her own mark.

Her tall slender frame, her expressive big black eyes, combined with her jet-black long hair, her classy grace, her ease with the lens, her unruly character, will captivate the audience, almost change the fashion of the time . However, Elena Nathanael also had talent, even if it was raw, she was an uncut diamond, which, despite this, will highlight her acting talent, avoiding exaggerations and imposing her modest interpretation skills. However, he will also have the misfortune of maturing when Greek cinema began to decline, becoming a burden of the seven-year dictatorship and stupidity, with some exceptions, some of which he was lucky enough to participate in.

It’s been 15 years since her untimely death, when we learned the sad news on the morning of March 4th. Lung cancer defeated her. He was only 61 years old. Elena Nathanael may have essentially retired from theater and cinema for many years, but her death hurt the memories of the Greeks. She darkened the clear blue sky of Mani that she adored, of Evia where she lived in her last years, with the love of her life, the veteran footballer, Tasos Mitropoulos.

The objections and Lampeti

Elena Nathanael Delivasilis was the offspring of a wealthy family – her father was a weaver and originally from Aivali, while her mother, from whom she also had Nathanael, was originally from Mani. She was born on January 19, 1947 in the refugee district of New Philadelphia, she went to the Italian high school and despite her father’s objections she will do her own thing and enter the theater. She will study acting at the Drama School of Pelos Katselis, while eventually her father will relent when he sees Elena’s favorite actress, Elli Lampeti, in the theater and realizes that the stereotypes about actresses were nonsense.

Something to Burn

At the age of just 16, Nathanael made her film debut, in the color romantic comedy “Kati na Kaiei”, directed by Yiannis Dalianidis and with the entire staff of Fino by her side. Music by Mimi Plessas, stage designer Markos Zervas and co-starring the hottest names in Greek cinema of that time. From Dino Iliopoulos, Rena Vlachopoulou, Costas Voutsa and Martha Karagianni, to Christos Tsaganeas, Alekos Tzanetako and of course the up-and-coming Christos Negas, the poor musician who would fight for her love. If shown, Elena will upset the audience, bringing a special beauty to the big screen. Despite her success, without losing her mind, she will choose to study at the Dramatic School of Katselis, in order to acquire the necessary foundations, to get the smell of the stage.

Greek beauty cover

Shortly before finishing her studies, she will star in 1966 in the highly dignified emotional drama “Dama Spathi” by Giorgos Scalenakis, alongside the charming Spyros Fokas. The film will be screened at the Chicago Film Festival and the Thessaloniki Film Festival. Immediately after, she will be photographed, as the ambassador of Greece, in the great French magazine “Paris Match”, whose cover she will grace. A historic cover, which could have opened the doors to an international career, if he had made the decision to go abroad. Something he won’t decide even after the invitation from a German producer, who impressed him and suggested that they star in the film adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novel “Blood of the Weljungen” directed by Rolf Thiele.

Returning to Greece, she will star in the light and sufficiently touristy comedy “Operation Apollo” again by Skalenakis, who once again highlighted her beauty, but also her bond with the wonderful Greek landscapes. A Greco-Swedish production of 1968, which sold over 300,000 tickets, even though it did not have a recognizable co-star alongside it, but the colorless Thomas Fried.

The acting maturity of a 20-year-old

1968, however, will be a special year for Elena Nathanael, as she will star in the strong romantic drama, “Date with a Stranger”, directed by Vassilis Georgiadis. An interesting film, one of the best of her career, which will also give her the award for Best Actress at the Thessaloniki Festival, at the age of 21. Next to her is Yannis Voglis, in the role of the lover and Dimitris Myrat in the role of the cold husband. Next year he will play in the film “Wake up Basil”, one of the best comedic satires of the old Greek cinema, based on the well-written play by Dimitris Psathas, directed by Yiannis Dalianidis and having as co-stars the wonderful Giorgos Konstantinou, Alekos Alexandrakis and Giorgos Michalakopoulos, in the role of the unforgettable “Poet Fanfare”. Nathanael, although still a girl, will show, with her measured and fresh interpretation, that she has all the resources for an even better course. However, this is where the many freedoms in cinema end, the junta imposes its own aesthetics and its own “ideological” outline, giving yet another kick to Greek cinema, which had begun to decline.

The last cinematic summer

The sequel will be similar to that of many of her young colleagues, who exhausted their talent in indulgently indifferent films. Among other things, he will shoot the films “The Leventopedo”, with Dimitris Papamichael, “Volunteer in Love”, with Kostas Voutsas, the moving dramedy “That Summer”, with Lakis Komninos and the unforgettable music of Yiannis Spanos, the daring , for the time and today cult “Search” with Angelos Antonopoulos and the comedy “The Optimist” again with Voutsa.

Independent and in love

Elena Nathanael will leave her personal life out of the limelight and publicity, even though she worked with some of the most beautiful men of Greek cinema. She will never marry, in order not to lose her independence, not even when she had her only daughter in 1973, while she lived her great love for 29 years with Tassos Mitropoulos, with whom she lived in the last years of her life in the estate them in Evia, making their own wine.

Yes, like the good old wine, it could return to the big screen in the 1980s-1990s, but those who acted in the so-called commercial cinema were badly considered by the new Greek cinema as burnt papers, with very few exceptions. Thus, Elena Nathanael could also be described as a star that faded quickly. But it was not a comet. She was a tender brave being, a beautiful girl, who will be hard to see again and even harder to forget.