Escaping a military career forced on him by his officer father thanks to a chance meeting, while still enlisted, with future director Philippe de Broca, Brialy went on to became a central actor of the French New Wave, appearing in films by Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette and, particularly, Claude Chabrol; he turned in a masterful performance as the cynically demonic urbanite opposite Gerard Blain's country bumpkin in Chabrol's "The Cousins" (1959). Brialy's directorial efforts, beginning in 1971 with "Eglantine", have proved competent but unexceptional.