[1] Godard described him as "the French Cary Grant," while Brialy's self-described "life models" had reportedly been actor Sacha Guitry and director Jean Cocteau.

[2][3] Brialy directed a number of films, including Églantine in 1971, which was loosely inspired by his own memories of a happy childhood spent in Chambellay with his grandparents, and Les volets clos (Closed shutters) in 1972.

Director Jean-Pierre Melville used the château to shoot the last scenes of his 1970 crime film Le Cercle Rouge, where Alain Delon and Yves Montand are killed by the police.

[7] In his books, the autobiographical Le Ruisseau des singes (The river of monkeys) (2000) and the memoir J'ai oublié de vous dire (I Forgot to Tell You) (2004),[note 1] Brialy revealed that he was bisexual.

At the end of January 2021, the mayor invited the association of the Friends of Jean-Claude Brialy to "work in close collaboration [with Meaux]" in the context of "enhancing" the star's "heritage.