Jean-Claude Brialy

Biography: life and films

In the course of half a century, whilst pursuing a prominent career as an actor, Jean-Claude Brialy came to personify all that is best in French culture. A bon vivant, he started his own restaurant; a lover of literature, he read extensively and wrote several best-selling books; a natural raconteur, he revelled in his numerous television and radio appearances. But his greatest contribution was to dramatic art. Not only did he have a substantial film career (appearing in around one hundred and eighty films for cinema and television), but he was also a man of the stage. When he wasn't treading the boards, he was helping to direct theatres and film festivals. It's no wonder that he became one of the best loved and most highly respected figures in France.

Jean-Claude Brialy was born on 30th March 1933 at Aumale (now Sour El-Ghozlane) in Algeria. The son of a colonel in the French army, his early childhood was coloured by frequent moves around France, before the family settled in Strasbourg after the war. Although not particularly gifted academically, Brialy showed great promise in drama and won first prize at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg. Against the wishes of his parents, he enrolled at the Centre Dramatique de l'Est, to train to be an actor.

Military service then intervened and Brialy found himself attached to an army film unit in the German town of Baden-Baden. It was here that he made his first film, a short entitled "Chiffonard et Bon Aloi". Returning to civilian life, he wasn't slow to realise his acting ambitions, and immediately he started taking parts in stage comedies. In 1954, filled with youthful optimism, he moved to Paris, determined to make his name as an actor. With no support from his family, he lived off meagre earnings from part-time jobs whilst looking for work as an actor. It was at this time that he fell in with a group of outspoken intellectual cinephiles, critics on the film review magazine Les Cahiers du cinéma . Their names? Chabol, Godard and Rivette. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jean-Claude Brialy made his film début in 1956 in Jacques Rivette's short, Le Coup de Berger. This was followed by a bit part in Jean Renoir's Elena et les hommes (1956) and then, his first substantial role, in Jack Pinoteau's 1956 film, L'Ami de la famille. Then came a supporting role in Pierre Gaspard-Huit's 1958 film, Christine , where Brialy met the actress Romy Schenider, who would become a close personal friend.

By this time, Brialy's buddies on the Cahier du cinéma had taken to making their own films and were starting to have an impact far greater than they could have anticipated. Their approach to cinema was so diametrically opposed to the cinematographic conventions of the day that French cinema seemed to be going through a period of frantic renaissance. Out went polished scripts, well-rehearsed performances and meticulously staged productions. In came spontaneity, improvisation, subversive politics, real human emotion, and fun. One of the opening salvos in this "New Wave" came from Claude Chabrol - Le Beau Serge (1959). The film gave Jean-Claude Brialy his first leading role and established him overnight as a film actor of no mean talent. This was immediately followed by Les Cousins (1959), in which Brialy again starred opposite another rising star, Gérard Blain, under Chabrol's masterful direction.

Over the next few years, Jean-Claude Brialy became one of the most familiar faces of the French New Wave - and it was a milieu that suited him perfectly. He was the natural counterpoint to the arm-waving buffoonery of Jean-Paul Belmondo and the working class boyish naivety of Jean-Pierre Léaud. He was the suave sophisticate, the debonair playboy into whose outstretched arms beautiful women would gladly swoon whilst he recited Rimbaud or Racine. There was also a dark streak of mischievousness to his persona, an alluring feline campness lurking beneath the silky veneer of manly erudition. Brialy was talented, handsome, ambiguous and multi-faceted, with a shot of barely contained lunacy; no wonder the New Wave directors loved him. Jean-Luc Godard cast him in his short Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick (1957) and then in the feature Une femme est une femme (1960). François Truffaut became a close friend and gave him parts in Les 400 coups (1959) and La Mariée était en noir (1967). He had a leading role in Eric Rohmer's sublime Le Genou de Claire (1969) and he appeared in Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) and Agnès Varda's Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962).

With the passing of the Nouvelle Vague, Jean-Claude Brialy's film career continued to flourish. Not only were his talents eagerly sought after by highly respected cineastes such as Luis Buñuel ( Le Fantôme de la liberté, 1974), Bertrand Tavernier (Le Juge et l'assassin, 1975) and Ettore Scola ( La Nuit de Varennes, 1982), but he was equally attracted to popular comedies, such as Edouard Molinaro's Arsène Lupin contre Arsène Lupin (1963), Jean-Louis Trintignant's Le Maître-nageur (1978) and Gérard Jugnot's Pinot simple flic (1984). Other notable appearances include: Claude Miller's Mortelle Randonnée (1982), Chabrol's Inspecteur Lavardin (1986) and Patrice Chéreau La Reine Margot (1994). The word "non" didn't seem to be in this workaholic actor's vocabulary; how else could you account for the extraordinary diversity of his roles?

And as if that wasn't enough, Jean-Claude Brialy's contribution to cinema wasn't confined to acting. He also directed six, fairly respectable, films for cinema, including Églantine (1971) and Un amour de pluie (1974), and the same number of films of television, notably La Dame aux camellias (1998). He also found time to pursue a successful career as a stage actor. His theatrical successes include Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear (1968) and Hotel Paradiso (1974), and Sacha Guitry's Desiré (1984). He was also artistic director of the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, artistic director of the Festival d'Anjou from 1985 to 2001, and the creator and artistic director of the Festival de Ramatuelle since 1985.

To Brialy's numerous acting and directing credits should be added his work as a writer. As well as his screenplays, he wrote a number of books, including his best-selling memoirs "J'ai oublié de vous dire" and the autobiographical work "Le Ruisseau des singes", which recounts his childhood in Angers. For his exceptional contribution to French culture, he was awarded the Légion d'honneur, the Ordre national du mérite and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Jean-Claude Brialy remained active and hugely popular right up to the very end, continuing to work even after having been diagnosed with cancer. After a protracted illness, he passed away at his home in Paris on 30th May 2007, aged 74. His last significant acting job was as the gay Jewish poet Max Jacob in Gabriel Aghion's TV film drama, Monsieur Max (2007). He continues to live on, through the men and women he has inspired and influenced, the projects he has initiated, and of course through the many great films in which he appeared.

Filmography

Click here to view complete list of films...