Carmen Deraisy

Carmen Deraisy (1883-1954) was a French stage and screen actress who acted in 14 films between 1910 and 1914. She worked for Éclair, Pathé and Gaumont.


French postcard by Ed. S.I.P., no. 918/10. Photo: Reutlinger. Picture: E. Michau. The card was mailed in 1904.


French postcard by Ed. S.I.P., no. 910. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by Ed. S.I.P., no. 1088. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by Ed. S.I.P., no. 1091. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Caption: Odéon.


French postcard, no. 16. Photo: Félix.

A newly wed-bride who gets trapped in a room with a skeleton

Carmen Deraisy, aka Carmen de Raisy, was born Carmen Marie Hermine Carraud in Asnières-sur-Seine, France, in 1883. Deraisy was taught at the Paris Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique, where Paul Mounet was her teacher.

In the early 1900s, she acted at the Théâtre de l'Oeuvre, where in 1905, she played the femme fatale Gioconda Danti in Gabriele D'Annunzio's play 'La Gioconda', and Ornelia in D'Annunzio's 'La figlia di Jorio'. In 1907, she had a supporting part in L'Affaire des Poisons by Sardou, performed at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, with Gilda Darthy as Mme de Montespan and Maxime Desjardins as King Louis XIV. At the same theatre, she also had supporting parts in 'Le Bourgeois gentilhomme' and 'Horace', both with Darthy in the female lead. Afterwards, she did several performances at the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique, as in 'Nick Carter' in 1909. In 1910, she played La Poule blanche (The White Chicken) in 'Chantecler' by Edmond Rostand, first performed on 7 February 1910 at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin.

In the same year, 1910, Deraisy began acting in films at the Éclair company in La jolie dame de Narbonne / The Pretty Lady of Narbonne (Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, 1910), where she played the lead role from the start. Already in 1911, she stepped over to Pathé, where she could be seen in La mariée du château maudit / The Bride of the Cursed Castle (Albert Capellani, 1911), a Horror-like film about a newlywed bride who gets trapped in a room with the skeleton of a noblewoman, locked in there centuries ago.

After that, Deraisy acted in eight more films at Pathé between 1911 and 1914. In Les Martyrs de la vie / The Martyrs of Life (René Leprince, 1912), with René Alexandre and Stacia Napierkowska, she played a wealthy, ugly woman abandoned by her husband-to-be, who prefers a simple working-class girl. The woman becomes a nun, and one day the sick girl is brought into her ward... In 1914, Deraisy had a supporting part in the remake of La Lutte pour la vie / The Fight for Life, directed by Leprince and Ferdinand Zecca, and starring René Alexandre. Deraisy's last silent film was the Gaumont production La Statue du silence / The Statue of Silence (unknown director, 1914). All in all, she played in 14 films between 1910 and 1914.

In 1911, a scandalous event happened at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin in Paris when Deraisy was attacked by British former boxer and then boxing school teacher and owner Marc Gaucher, who rubbed rubbish in her face. He was given a 15-day suspended prison sentence and fined 200 francs. Parallel to her film career, Deraisy acted in the early 1910s at the Théâtre Femina, Théâtre des Arts and Théâtre de la Comédie Royale in plays by Raymond Roussel, G.B. Shaw and Tristan Bernard. During the late 1910s, Deraisy would continue to perform at the Théâtre de la Porte St. Martin, e.g. in 1916 as Roxane in Rostand's 'Cyrano de Bergerac'. Deraisy would return to the film set only once more, as a fortuneteller in the Harry Baur film Péchés de jeunesse / Sins of Youth (Maurice Tourneur, 1941). Carmen Deraisy died in Paris in 1954.

French postcard by Ed. S.I.P., no. 943. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by Ed. S.I.P., no. 1091. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by Ed. S.I.P., no. 1310. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by GPL ELD (Ed. Le Deley). Photo: Bert. Carmen Deraisy as La Poule Blanche (The White Chicken) in the French play 'Chantecler' (1910) by Edmond Rostand.


French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix. Caption: Mlle Carmen de Raisy.


French postcard by Ed. S.I.P., no. 918/10. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Image: E. Michau.

You can view La mariée du château maudit (1911) at Eye Filmmuseum's section on YouTube. Recommended!

Sources: Wikipedia (French), Les Archives du Spectacle, Gallica, and IMDb.