This Saturday, September 9, 2023, the small town of Vieille-Lyre (Eure) will experience an unusual excitement with the inauguration of a statue of André Raimbourg, better known as Bourvil.
This tribute is not reserved for a local child, since the Norman actor was born much further north in Seine-Maritime, but it was there that he came to shoot in the early 1950s, in the company of the very young Brigitte Bardot, one of his first hits, “Le Trou normand”, directed by Jean Boyer. An event that had the Pays d’Ouche in turmoil at the time and on which the local ociation “Sur les pas de Bourvil” relies to develop a tourist circuit composed of panels and frescoes on a dozen towns in the area that recall the page of the famous comedian in the region. ” Overall, Bourvil came to shoot three films there”, recalls Jacques Hermier, the cheerful president of the ociation. “Le Rosier de Madame Husson in 1950, Le Trou Normand in 1952 and La Cuisine au beurre in 1963 with the final scene in the company of Fernandel”.
The work unveiled this weekend therefore completes this route right in front of the old Trou Normand inn, which has now become a lodging for hikers on the initiative of the municipality, right next to the period gas pump. installed some time ago. “It was a young man from the country who launched the idea. And as we found it good, we tried to raise the funds to achieve it, “continues the retiree who unearthed another local talent to make the statue, installed only a few kilometers away in his workshop in Champignolles, the moulder of art Vincent Thomas.
A 1.74m high resin Bourvil
The former Grévin museum offered for the occasion to use the techniques he used to give life to the lookalikes of the biggest stars in the world. And it was Joël, one of the members of the ociation, who acted as the model for a 3D scanning session to serve as the basis for the statue whose face was created in parallel by Sonia Quesa, former colleague of Vincent Thomas, who took charge of his hands. “There was something in his posture, in his head carriage which stuck well to the original”, ures the art moulder.
The set was then embled to make the final mold to create a 1.74 m high resin Bourvil capable of withstanding the onslaught of time. “The choice was to paint it in black and white to stick to the photo which served as the basis for this work which should have its effect”, smiles Jacques Hermier who is not expecting far from 200 people at the inauguration of SATURDAY. “At the start, I was told that Bourvil was outdated, that it was not promising. You have to believe that if…”