Louise Carletti

Beautiful, photogenic actress Louis Carletti (1922-2002) was the young and sweet star of the French cinema of the late 1930s and 1940s.


French postcard by Editions E.C., Paris, no. 92. Photo: Discina.


French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Paris, no. 89. Photo: S.P.C.


French postcard by Collection Chantal, no. 838. Photo: G. Aldo / Discina, Paris.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 18.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 124. Photo: Roger-Carlet.

A family of trapeze artists

Louise Carletti was born Luisa Armida Paola Carboni in a family of trapeze artists in Marseille, France, in 1922.

She had her first performance as an acrobat at the age of seven at the music hall of Marseille.

Her sister Victoria would later become known as the actress Carlettina.

Louise was discovered by the famous film director Jacques Feyder when she did a dance act with Victoria. At 15, Louise made her first film appearance in the circus film Les Gens du voyage/People Who Travel (Jacques Feyder, 1938), starring Françoise Rosay.

Her breakthrough came two years later with the successful films L' Enfer des anges/Angels of the Underground (Christian-Jaque, 1940) with Mouloudji, and Nous, les gosses/Portrait of Innocence (Louis Daquin, 1941) with Gilbert Gil.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 1. Photo: Studio Piaz.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 93. Photo: Le Studio.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 307. Photo: Studio Piaz.


French postcard by Editions Continental, no. 107/A. Photo: Continental Films.


French postcard by Viny, no. 43. Photo: Filmexport.

Raoul André

In the next years, Louise Carletti became a busy film star, and she proved to be equally good in comic as in dramatic parts. In 1942, when she was 20, she played opposite the legendary actor Henri Garat in Annette et la dame blonde/Annette and the Blonde Woman (Jean Dréville, 1942).

Other better known productions of those years are Macao, l'enfer du jeu/Gambling Hell (Jean Delannoy, 1942) with the legendary silent film star Sessue Hayakawa, Patricia (Paul Mesnier, 1942), Des jeunes filles dans la nuit/Young Girls at Night (René Le Hénaff, 1943), L'ennemi sans visage/The Enemy Without a Face (Robert-Paul Dagan, 1946), and Fausse identité/False Identity (André Chotin, 1947) with Raymond Bussières.

In 1946, she appeared in Le Village de la colère/The Village of Wrath, her first film directed by Raoul André. In 1955 they married, and their daughter, Ariane Carletti, would also become an actress.

In the 1950s Louise mainly worked with her husband in films like Une fille à croquer/Good Enough to Eat (Raoul André, 1951) opposite Gaby Morlay, Les pépées au service secret/The Pépées in Secret Service (Raoul André, 1956), and La planque/The Hideout (Raoul André, 1961) with Mouloudji.

Her last film was the adventure Mission spéciale à Caracas/Mission to Caracas (Raoul André, 1965). That same year she retired to occupy herself with her family. Louise Carletti died in 2002 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, at age 80.


French postcard, no. 47. Photo: C.P.L.E.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 26. Photo: Pathé.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 53. Photo: Le Studio.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 124. Photo: Roger Carlet.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (French), Allocine (French), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 2 September 2023.