Roland Topor  

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Roland Topor (1938 – 1997) was a French illustrator, painter, writer and filmmaker, known for the surreal, fantastic and grotesque nature of his work.

Perhaps best known for his novel The Tenant (1964), he is also noted for collaborating on included Fantastic Planet (1973) and Marquis (1988), all the while continuing his graphic work such as Les Masochistes (1960) and the Amnesty International poster of 1977, which shows a man whose jaw is hammered into his chest.

Personal life

His parents were of Polish Jewish origin and Topor spent the early years of his life in Savoy where his family hid him from the Nazi peril. He has a son, Nicolas Topor.

Literary career

Roland Topor is best known for his novel The Tenant ("Le Locataire Chimérique", 1964), which was adapted to film by Roman Polanski in 1976. The later novel Joko's Anniversary (1969), a fable about loss of identity, is a vicious satire on social conformity.

He also wrote Leonardo Was Right (1978), Three Artists from France (1994), Je T'aime: A Pillow Talk (1998) and two works of non fiction: Panic (1965) and Journal in Time (1989).

Theatre

Topor variously wrote, directed and designed a number of theatre works. Topor's absurd narratives are rife with macabre ironies, scatologies, and cruelties, which seem intended to shock and reframe human interactions to an insane extent. When Topor's play Joko fête son anniversaire was performed in Brussels in 1972, one critic commented, "In some countries, the author would be shot." Topor's play Vinci avait raison (somewhat of a pastiche of J. B. Priestley's 1945 play An Inspector Calls) is set in a house where no one can escape, the toilets are clogged, and excrement becomes evident on stage. It was performed in Brussels in 1977 and caused a scandal. Critical responses include the suggestion, "We must put this idiot in prison for creating such filth."

His plays include:

• 1972 – Les derniers jours de solitude de Robinson Crusoé (The Last Lonely Days of Robinson Crusoe)
• 1972 – Le Bébé de Monsieur Laurent (Monsieur Laurent’s Baby)
• 1975 – De Moïse à Mao, 5000 ans d’aventures (From Moses to Mao, 5000 Adventurous Years)
• 1983 – Batailles (with Jean-Michel Ribes) (Battles)
• 1989 – Joko fête son anniversaire (Joko Celebrates his Birthday)
• 1989 – Vinci avait raison (Vinci was Right)
• 1994 – L'Hiver sous la table (Winter Under the Table)
• 1996 – L’Ambigu (Ambiguity)

Songs

Roland Topor wrote two songs for Megumi Satsu, "Je m'aime" and "Monte dans mon Ambulance"

Cinema

With René Laloux, Topor made "The Dead Times" ("Les Temps morts", 1964), "The Snails" ("Les Escargots", 1965) and their most famous work, the feature length La Planète Sauvage (1973).

Topor also worked as an actor, his most famous part being Renfield in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979). In the same year, he also performed the surrealistic paralyzed boss in the movie Ratataplan by Maurizio Nichetti.

Colaborations:

• 1965 : Les Temps Morts, dessin animé avec René Laloux
• 1966 : Les Escargots, dessin animé avec René Laloux
• 1967 : Le Lapin de Noël, scénario avec Georges Dumoulin (émission TV Dim, Dam, Dom)
• 1971 : Les Malheurs d'Alfred, scénario avec André Ruellan et Pierre Richard
• 1973 : La Planète sauvage, réalisation René Laloux
• 1975 : La Fille du garde-barrière, avec Jérôme Savary
• 1976 : Le Casanova de Fellini (Il Casanova di Federico Fellini) — Topor, créateur de la séquence de la « lanterne magique »
• 1977 : L'Entreprise, court métrage pour le CNPF
• 1978 : La Maladie de Hambourg, scénario écrit avec Peter Fleischmann (réalisateur) et Otto Jägerberg
• 1982 : The Lucky Star, scénario du film de Max Fisher
• 1988 : Marquis, coréalisation Henri Xhonneux
• 1996 : Le Poète, sa muse, écriture d'une dizaine de pilotes d'une minute chacun pour la télévision. Réalisation Marc Carpentier.
• 2010 : L'Orpheline avec en plus un bras en moins, scénario coécrit avec le réalisateur Jacques Richard.

Artistic career

Roland Topor was discovered by Jacques Sternberg and in 1960 he publishes his debut Les Masochistes, a collection of drawings. He exhibits in the university museum Maison des Beaux-Arts, Paris from January 20 to January 30 1961.

He published several books of drawings, including Dessins panique (1965) Quatre roses pour Lucienne (1967) and Toporland (1975). Selections from Quatre roses pour Lucienne were reprinted in the English language collection Stories and Drawings (1967). His carefully detailed, realistic style, with elaborate crosshatching, emphasises the fantastic and macabre subject matter of the images.

In 1962 he created the Panic Movement (mouvement panique), together with Alejandro Jodorowsky and Fernando Arrabal.

From 1961 to 1965 he contributed to the French satirical Hara Kiri magazine.

He created the drawings for the bizarre introduction of Arrabal's film Viva la muerte (1971).

In 1983, he created with Henri Xhonneux the popular French TV series Téléchat, a parody of news broadcasts featuring a puppet cat and a puppet ostrich.

Chronology

1962 – Creates the Panic Movement (mouvement panique), together with Alejandro Jodorowsky and Fernando Arrabal.

1961 to 1965 – Contributes to French satirical magazine Hara-Kiri.

1965 – Creates, with partner René Laloux, the animated short film "Les Escargots." The movie won Special Jury Prize at the Cracow Film Festival.

1966 – Illustrates Daniel Spoerri's An Anecdoted Topography of Chance (Re-Anecdoted Version) published by the Something Else Press.

1971 – Creates the drawings for the bizarre introduction of Fernando Arrabal's film Viva la muerte.

1973 – Topor designs and René Laloux directs La Planète sauvage, a 72-minute long animated film, based on a novel by Stefan Wul.

1974 – Topor has a cameo in Dušan Makavejev's Sweet Movie.

1976 – Roman Polanski directs a movie version of Topor's book The Tenant.

1979 – Plays the role of Renfield in Werner Herzog's movie Nosferatu the Vampyre.

1983 – Creates with Henri Xhonneux the popular French TV series Téléchat, a parody of news broadcasts featuring puppets of a cat and an ostrich.

1989 – With Henri Xhonneux co-writes the screenplay for the film Marquis, loosely based on the life and writings of Marquis de Sade. The cast consisted of actors in period costumes with animal masks, with a separate puppet for de Sade's anthropomorphised "bodily appendage."

Bibliography

Romans

• Le Locataire chimérique
• La Vérité sur Max Lampin
• Le Bébé de Monsieur Laurent
• La Princesse Angine
• Jachère Party
• Erika
• Mémoires d'un vieux con
• Joko fête son anniversaire (Roman et théâtre)

Recueils de nouvelles

• Café Panique
• Portrait en pied de Suzanne
• Four Roses for Lucienne
• La Plus Belle Paire de seins du monde
• Made in Taïwan, copyright in Mexico

Théâtre

• 1972 – Les derniers jours de solitude de Robinson Crusoé (The Last Lonely Days of Robinson Crusoe)
• 1972 – Le Bébé de Monsieur Laurent (Monsieur Laurent’s Baby)
• 1975 – De Moïse à Mao, 5000 ans d’aventures (From Moses to Mao, 5000 Adventurous Years)
• 1983 – Batailles (with Jean-Michel Ribes) (Battles)
• 1989 – Joko fête son anniversaire (Joko Celebrates his Birthday)
• 1989 – Vinci avait raison (Vinci was Right)
• 1994 – L'Hiver sous la table (Winter Under the Table)
• 1996 – L’Ambigu (Ambiguity)

Divers

• Palace, avec Jean-Michel Ribes (sketches-télé)
• Merci Bernard, avec Jean-Michel Ribes (sketches)
• Le Sacré Livre de Prouto (récit)
• Journal in time (chroniques)
• Courts termes, avec Éric Devolver (entretiens)
• L'Équation du bonheur, avec Henri Rubinstein ( entretiens)
• À rebrousse-poil, avec Henri Xhonneux (échanges)
• La Cuisine cannibale (recettes)
• Rumsteack morceaux (poèmes et chansons)

Pages linking in as of April 2021

1938, 1997, Agnieszka Taborska, Alejandro Jodorowsky, André Diot, Anja Petersen, Appel du 18 joint, April 16, Arnulf Herrmann, Barbara Wright (translator), Beaux-Arts de Paris, Benoît Lamy, Beppe Costa, Bill Plympton, Björn Bürger, Bob Swaim, Catherine Jacob (actress), Charlie Hebdo, Christian Zeimert, Copi, Daniel Spoerri, Dejan Ognjanović (author), Der Mieter, Diogenes Verlag, Dominique Pinon, École des Beaux-Arts, Elise Larnicol, Elsa Zylberstein, Fantastic Planet, Fantastique, Fellini: I'm a Born Liar, Fernando Arrabal, Fernando San Martín Félez, François Berléand, Guilaine Londez, Hara-Kiri (magazine), Hélène d'Almeida-Topor, History of Shit, Jack Clayton, Jacques Grinberg, Jean-Michel Ribes, Jerelle Kraus, Josiane Balasko, Kamagurka, Late Night Line-Up, Lee Adams (performance artist), List of avant-garde films of the 1960s: 1965–1969, List of burials at Montparnasse Cemetery, List of chess players, List of comics creators, List of French Jews, List of German films of the 1970s, List of Polish people, List of stop motion films, Little Tales of Misogyny, Lorena Berdún, Lydie Arickx, Marcel Moreau, Margaret Crosland (writer), Marina Foïs, Marquis (film), Marquis de Sade, Martin Parr, Megumi Satsu, Michael Bastow, Museum of Caricature, Warsaw, Nebula Award for Best Script, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Panic Movement, Pellicanolibri, Peter Fleischmann, Pierre Berdoy, Pierre-François Martin-Laval, Planète (magazine), Prix des Deux Magots, Prix Saint-Michel, Ratataplan, René Laloux, René Maltête, Renfield, Roland (name), Roman Polanski, Royal Designers for Industry, Situationist Times, Stéphane Blanquet, Swann in Love (film), Sweet Movie, The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, The Gatekeeper's Daughter, The Hamburg Syndrome, The Tenant, Thérèse Quentin, Three Lives and Only One Death, Topor (surname), Viva la Muerte (film), Wilhelm Busch Museum, William Klein (photographer), Wolfram Siebeck, Zwy Milshtein

Notes

• Magic lantern drawings featured in Fellini's Casanova are by Roland Topor
• Topor is buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery
• Topor studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
• His 1970 Joko fête son anniversaire won the Prix des Deux Magots
• Topor also contributed to Charlie Hebdo, successor of Hara-Kiri.
• Topor and Me, a 2004 short film by Sylvia Kristel.
• An Anecdoted Topography of Chance by Daniel Spoerri and Roland Topor