The admirable course in the cinema of a painter of the Yvelines

“Your painting is surprising like life, warm like friendship, endearing as music, passionate like love. ” THE compliment was made about thirty years ago by a certain Danielle Darrieux, a famous actress and singer who died in 2017 at the age of 100.

He is addressed to his friend Dominique Andrépainter in his spare time, best known for having been a chef decorator in the cinema for forty-five years. He participated in films shot by the greatest, of Claude Sautet has Francis Labe.

It is this same Dominique André participates, on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 January 2025, in the major annual artistic exhibition organized by the Ecquevilly festival committee (Yvelines), the town where he resides Since the early 1980s And his departure from Montmartre.

Talent in the veins

He will exhibit five or six of his 200 tableaux Stoked in his workshop, “which are useless today”.

“I would prefer to show them, be invited to a huge exhibition where I could hang 100 or 150. But I will never dare to ask anyone. It is not in my nature. »»

The octogenarian (81 years since December 14, 2024) has talent in the veins. Her grandfather is the reputed painter and engraver Pierre Dubreuil. His father, Maurice André, was also a size of the world of tapestry and worked with the older ones in Aubusson (Creuse).

Like them, he was heading for a brilliant artistic career, with a shattering At the National School of Decorative Arts at the end of the 1950s, without having the bac in pocket, a rarity!

“In the contest, I was received first in drawing and in making a poster. As I did not have the bac, I was given a general knowledge test. I had 1 in 20. The zero would have been eliminatory. »»

A flash success in the cinema

His brushstroke is impeccable. He also won the prestigious dome price In the early 1970s. But in the meantime, knowledge allowed him to discover another universe, in this case cinema.

“When I was 18-19 years old, I was offered to paint sets in films to earn a little money,” he explains. His talent does not go unnoticed long, notably attractive the director Philippe de Broca.

A slew of successful films

“This is how I found myself a decorator chief on the film The devil by the tail (1969), he recalls. It worked very well. Yves Montand, the main actor, had a lot of affection for me. He always said: Oh my son, oh my son. It was reserved for people he liked a lot. »»

For forty years, until 2008, Dominique André will make the decorations of successful films as Boy (1983), Happy Easter (1984), The beginner (1986), Old canaille (1992), The Tower Montparnasse Hell (2001), The lining (2006)… In 1981, he was even nominated for César in the category of best decor with A bad son by Claude Sautet.

Jean Gabin’s blue portrait with blue eyes

If his career takes place without a hitch, it is above all because he knew how to seduce the stars of the cinema by his kindness and his availability, of Serge Reggiani to Jean-Paul Belmondo via Gad Elmaleh (crossed in The lining de Francis Veber) or Jacques Villeret.

“I have anecdotes. But one who played in my favor, it was when Denys de la Patellière asked me if I could make a portrait of Jean Gabin. He always had the same executing decorator and, this time, he was not there. Denys provided me with some pictures of Gabin and advised me to make her blue eyes while, in the photo, he had red eyes. I got carried out “

A few days later, he waited with a little tension the reaction of Jean Gabin. “He arrived, looked at the decor before launching: Who did this? But it’s extraordinary, it’s my eyes! It’s great my little one! »

“At the time, everyone would see his pumps. The next days, everyone came to see me saying to me: Hi Dominique, are you fine? I had become an extraordinary person. »»

He stood up to Marcel Dassault and Georges Lautner

Another asset of Dominique André, his outspoken : “I worked on a film produced by Marcel Dassault (Summer of our fifteen years). The scenario was not terrible, but no one dared to tell him anything. »»

“Above all, it was not necessary to oppose Marcel Dassault. One day, in his mansion, I admit that it is not going at all. He turns around then and said: Why is he who says that? But he is right. Come with me and explain to what you want exactly. Everyone crashed in front of him, but not me. And he was great with me. I always said what I thought and it helped me in the profession. »»

Over the years, he will however take care to spare Susceptibilitieseach other, like the day he was attacked head -on by Georges Lautner on the set of Happy Easter.

“Before being contacted by Lautner, I was on a set with Claude Sautet. However, he hated him. He tried to destabilize me by telling me that my work did not suit him. As I had experience, I did not dismantle myself. And finally, he admitted it was great. A followed one long friendship. »

Nostalgia for the old missing

Film after film, decor after decor, the work of Dominique André is unanimously appreciated . He has this ability to never exceed the budget initially fixed and to shoot improbable scenes in the studio. “Reconstructing a 50 km highway in the studio, it cost much cheaper than turning directly on the highway. The same for the brewery that I imagined in Boy. »

In 2008, then aged 65, he contributed to the last two films (The piss ; A man and his dog) Before retiring.

“I entered the world of cinema, surely too young. The directors were much older than me. After a while, they all left, whether Claude Sautet, Philippe de Broca, Pierre Granier-Deferre … It became too hard to continue. It no longer made sense. »»

Painting, music and horse for a busy life

Retired, his agenda empties and he finds refuge in his atelier D’Ecquevilly that he had never completely abandoned, always finding time to paint a painting or two after thirteen -hour long working days.
He receives his Cinema FriendsAnd take the opportunity to offer them (or sometimes sell) some of their paintings. Danielle Darrieux, Pierre Richard and so many others leave Yvelines with a painting under their arm.

“Cinema allowed me to paint as I wanted, without having the need to have to live it,” emphasizes Dominique André. Now that I am 81 years old, I regret not having looked earlier in sell my fabrics. »

If he had been neither painter nor decorator, Dominique André would have been musician . The guitarist Manitas de Plata, met in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, taught him everything during a famous tour in the Camargue where he offered horse ridingto tourists. But that’s another story.

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