Writing

Roland Topor

Born — Died

1938-01-07 — 1997-04-16

Place of birth

Paris, France

Known for

Writing

Credits

37 titles

Roland Topor was a French illustrator, cartoonist, comics artist, painter, novelist, playwright, film and TV writer, filmmaker and actor, known for the surreal nature of his work. He gained notoriety as one of the home cartoonists of the subversive French magazine Hara-Kiri, renamed later Charlie-Hebdo. Roland Topor wrote the novel The Tenant (Le Locataire chimérique, 1964), which was adapted to film by Roman Polanski in 1976. The Tenant is the story of a Parisian of Polish descent, a chilling exploration of alienation and identity, asking disturbing questions about how we define ourselves.

Known for

Film credits

1970s · 10 titles

Nosferatu the Vampyre poster
7.3

A real estate agent leaves behind his beautiful wife to go to Transylvania to visit the mysterious Count Dracula and formalize the purchase of a property in Wismar.

Nosferatu the Vampyre

1979

Sweet Movie poster
5.3

The winner of the Miss World Virginity contest marries, escapes from her masochistic husband and ends up involved in a world of debauchery.

Sweet Movie

1974

Cartoon circus poster
6.7

Feature film.

Cartoon circus

1972

The Butcher, the Star and the Orphan poster
5.0

A butcher dreams of becoming a famous director. He hires stars that he begins to kill.

The Butcher, the Star and the Orphan

1975

The Daughter of the Railroad Crossing Guard poster
10.0

Based on the idea by Roland Topor (screenwriter of Roman Polanski's The Tenant), this very curious completely silent melodrama tells the story of Mona, who has left her father, the railway gatekeeper, after being raped on the train track. She is kidnapped and taken to a Parisian whorehouse. However, a disinherited prince, Dudu who tries to rescue her, is himself kidnapped and forced to serve as a male prostitute. The two captives meet there and fall in love. They are taken away by different rich people - he to an Arab "harem," she to a surgeon's home.

The Daughter of the Railroad Crossing Guard

1975

The Making of 'Nosferatu' poster
6.3

Werner Herzog discusses the making of "Nosferatu" on set.

The Making of 'Nosferatu'

1979

Destins parallèles poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Destins parallèles

1979

Threshold of the Void poster
7.2

The young artist Wanda Leibovitz comes to Paris, hoping to forget unfortunate love. Soon after arrival directly at the station Wanda meets the mysterious old woman suggesting to rent at it the room (whom the old woman, allegedly, held ready for the now deceased sister). Wanda doesn't know yet that this room will change all her life shortly after it slightly opens a mysterious forbidden door.

Threshold of the Void

1974

Ratataplan poster
6.9

Misadventures of Colombo, an engineer in Milano. He is the only winner of an admission test for a job, and just for this reason he isn't hired. So he becomes a barman, and he discovers a special formula that turns simple water into the "Immortality drink". He is robbed of the magic water copyright. So he tries to set up a theatrical company, but the first show is a fiasco. Since finding a normal job seems a mission impossible, he tries to set the sentimental side of his life. He targets the most beautiful girl of his building, and for her he builds a robot able to dance like Tony Manero (John Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever (1977)). The robot gets drunk (!). It is another fiasco. So he targets an ugly girl and finally with her succeeds to live his surreal world for ever.

Ratataplan

1979

Italiques: Roland Topor poster
NR

Roger Boussinot directed this episode of the French television show Italiques, which features an overview of the art and career of Fantastic Planet illustrator Roland Topor. It aired on August 8, 1974.

Italiques: Roland Topor

1974

Series credits

Behind the camera

Fantastic Planet poster
7.6

On the planet Ygam, the Draags, extremely technologically and spiritually advanced blue humanoids, consider the tiny Oms, human beings descendants of Terra's inhabitants, as ignorant animals. Those who live in slavery are treated as simple pets and used to entertain Draag children; those who live hidden in the hostile wilderness of the planet are periodically hunted and ruthlessly slaughtered as if they were vermin.

Fantastic Planet

1973

Marquis poster
6.5

On the eve of revolution, French activist and author Marquis and his talking penis, Colin, await judgment in the Bastille for allegedly plotting against the state. While Marquis dedicates himself to his art and Colin longs for action, the provocative pair unwittingly rouse the interest of competing ideological factions.

Marquis

1989

The Hamburg Syndrome poster
5.6

When a plague breaks out in Hamburg, several people break out of quarantine and make their way out of the city... only to find that the plague is more widespread.

The Hamburg Syndrome

1979

The Troubles of Alfred poster
5.9

Unlucky in love, Alfred tries to commit suicide, only to be thwarted by police efforts to prevent a simultaneous attempt by a nearby young woman. Recovering, the young lady puts him up at her house, as he has run out of places to live. He joins a Parisian sporting team and seems to have transferred his bad luck to a corrupt television boss who is attempting to manipulate the game so that Alfred's Paris team loses.

The Troubles of Alfred

1972

The Butcher, the Star and the Orphan poster
5.0

A butcher dreams of becoming a famous director. He hires stars that he begins to kill.

The Butcher, the Star and the Orphan

1975

No artwork available
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Game

1975

La Galette du roi poster
4.6

In this conventional, broadly comic farce of greed and royal matrimony, nearly bankrupt businessman Victor Harris is marrying Maria-Helena, a princess who comes with a dowry that is made up of one half of her island kingdom. Her father, the cowardly King Arnold III is counting on the money this marriage will bring him. The country is now almost bankrupt because of the king's gambling debts. As Harris and the king look forward to their illusory profits from the royal merger, other characters add some liveliness to the otherwise predictable story.

La Galette du roi

1986

The Daughter of the Railroad Crossing Guard poster
10.0

Based on the idea by Roland Topor (screenwriter of Roman Polanski's The Tenant), this very curious completely silent melodrama tells the story of Mona, who has left her father, the railway gatekeeper, after being raped on the train track. She is kidnapped and taken to a Parisian whorehouse. However, a disinherited prince, Dudu who tries to rescue her, is himself kidnapped and forced to serve as a male prostitute. The two captives meet there and fall in love. They are taken away by different rich people - he to an Arab "harem," she to a surgeon's home.

The Daughter of the Railroad Crossing Guard

1975

The Snails poster
6.9

In a distant planetoid, an industrious but hapless old farmer strives to make his vegetables flourish, however, to no avail.

The Snails

1966

Dead Times poster
7.1

What is man? Man makes war, man kills man, man hunts, man is executed. A montage mixing original drawings by Topor, original shots and stock shots that ironically analyze what man is.

Dead Times

1964

He! Viva Dada poster
NR

Report from the second free expression festival organized at the American Cultural Center, Boulevard Raspail, in May 1965. The shows, all happenings inspired by ""théâtre panique/ the panic theater", includes Fernando Arrabal, Roland Topor and Alejandro Jodorowsky.

He! Viva Dada

1965