Julien Carette

Julien Carette (1897-1966), often simply billed as Carette, was a distinguished French character screen actor, marked by his cheeky and fiery-eyed face and his Parisian accent. He was famous for his roles in the late 1930s films by Jean Renoir: La grande illusion/The Grand Illusion (1937), La bête humaine/The Human Beast (1938), La Marseillaise (1938), and La règle du jeu/The Rules of the Game (1939). From the early 1940s, he often acted in films by Claude Autant-Lara. During his 30-year career, Carette played in over 100 films.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 27. Photo: Star.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 997. Photo: Paramount.

A carefree wanderer

Julien Henri Carette was born in 1897 in Paris. He was the son of Félix Marius Carette and Valentine Oursel. Carette's childhood did not go smoothly and was marked by a lot of setbacks.

He did many different jobs before enrolling at the ENSAD (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) in the hope of becoming a painter. He met the future film director Claude Autant-Lara with whom he later collaborated regularly. He soon realised that painting was not his thing. He then took the entrance exam for the Paris Conservatoire. Although he was refused, he still managed to become an extra at the Théâtre de l'Odéon. From then on, he performed in French music halls and in the theatre.

In 1930 he made his film debut in the short film Au coin perdu/At the Lost Corner (Robert Péguy, 1930) with Kissa Kouprine. The next year followed the short comedy Attaque nocturne/Night Attack (Marc Allégret, 1931), with Fernandel in one of his first roles. Marc Allégret cast Carette in two other short films alongside Marcel Dalio. The Prévert brothers entrusted him with his first major role in the comedy L'affaire est dans le sac/It's in the Bag (1932), Pierre Prévert's directorial debut. That same year he trotted out as a rider in the military satire Les Gaietés de l'escadron/Fun in Barracks (Maurice Tourneur, 1932), starring Jean Gabin, Fernandel, and Raimu.

Marc Allégret gave him some supporting roles, including in the tragicomedies Gribouille/Heart of Paris (Marc Allégret, 1937), in which Michèle Morgan played her first major role alongside Raimu, and Entrée des artistes/The Curtain Rises (Marc Allégret, 1938) with Louis Jouvet. The following year, Carette found Michèle Morgan back in the drama Le Récif de corail/Coral Reefs (Maurice Gleize, 1938), this time in the company of Jean Gabin.

Carette's best-known work of the 1930s is in three classic films by Jean Renoir where he usually played a carefree wanderer. In the pacifist First World War film La Grande Illusion/The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937) he portrayed the popular talkative sergeant who was part of a group of imprisoned French officers in a German prison camp. In La Bête Humaine/The Human Beast (Jean Renoir, 1938), a drama based on the fate of the novel by Émile Zola, he played Jean Gabin's friend and workmate, who drives the train. In La Règle du jeu/The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939), a sharp moral comedy about the French upper class and their staff, he played the poacher who becomes a servant in a castle.


French postcard by Crépa, Editeur, Paris. Photo: Sam Lévin. Jean Gabin, Dalio, Carette, Gaston Modot and Pierre Fresnay in La grande illusion/The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937).


French mini-poster (collectors card) by Pathé. Photo: CICC. Pierre Brasseur and Julien Carette in Sixième Étage (Maurice Cloche, 1941).


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 39. Photo: Studio Piaz.

Titi Parisien

From the early 1940s, Julien Carette acted in eight films by Claude Autant-Lara. In Lettres d'amour/Letters of Love (Claude Autant-Lara, 1942), he played a hectic and devilish dance master. In the period comedy Occupe-toi d'Amélie/Keep an Eye on Amelia (Claude Autant-Lara, 1949), Autant-Lara exploited his comic vein. In L'Auberge rouge/The Red Inn (Claude Autant-Lara, 1951), alongside Fernandel and Françoise Rosay, he portrayed with verve the menacing hotelier-innkeeper who has the sinister habit of murdering and robbing his customers. The commercial success of this tragicomedy was still eclipsed by the great reception that La Jument verte/The Green Mare (Claude Autant-Lara, 1959) received. In this comedy, based on the successful novel of the same name by Marcel Aymé, Carette portrayed the mayor of a village where two families take each other's lives.

It was Henri Decoin who first cast Carette alongside Danielle Darrieux, in the comedy Battement de cœur/Beating Heart (Henri Decoin, 1940). Jean-Paul Le Chanois gave Carette a supporting role in three of his tragicomedies, each time alongside Bernard Blier. Marcel Carné also managed to use Carette's talent several times, first in Les Portes de la nuit/Gates of the Night (Marcel Carné, 1946), a poetic drama that takes place in Paris in one night. Three years later, Carette bumped into Jean Gabin again, this time in La Marie du port/Marie of the Port (Marcel Carné, 1950), a tragicomedy based on Georges Simenon's novel of the same name.

Carette took the lead on several occasions, especially in the second half of the 1940s. More than 10 years after L'affaire est dans le sac, Carette's second film appearance in 1932, Pierre Prévert gave him the title role in his crime comedy Adieu Léonard/Goodbye Leonard (Pierre Prévert, 1943) with Charles Trenet and Pierre Brasseur. Carette played an ordinary man who commits a blunder and is blackmailed for it by someone who wants to turn him into a murderer.

He preferably embodied simple and straightforward characters who practised serving professions such as servant, bartender, butler, or coachman. Carette's nickname was 'Titi parisien'. In his films, he often had a mocking and impertinent air and a Parisian swagger about him. This came in handy in the many films set in Paris, including Paris Camargue (Jack Forrester, 1935), Aventure à Paris/Adventure in Paris (Marc Allégret, 1936), Café de Paris (Yves Mirande, Georges Lacombe, 1938), Lumières de Paris/Lights of Paris (Richard Pottier, 1938), Paris, Palace Hôtel (Henri Verneuil, 1956), Rencontre à Paris/Meeting in Paris (Georges Lampin, 1956), and Si Paris nous était conté/If Paris Were Told to Us (Sacha Guitry, 1956).

His career came to a halt around 1960 because he was prone to osteoarthritis. Powerless and helpless, he made his final film, Les Aventures de Salavin/The Adventures of Salavin (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1964). In 1966, Carette was severely wounded during a fire in his home caused by a burning cigarette. He later passed away in a hospital in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the western suburbs of Paris. He was 68. Julien Carette is buried in his hometown Vésinet.


French postcard by Edit. Chantal, Rueil, no. 11. Photo: Industrie Cinématographique.


French postcard, no. 106. Photo: Francinex.

Sources: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Les Gens du Cinéma (French), Wikipedia (English, Dutch and French), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 2 September 2023.