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
8.5Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.
Apostrophes
1975
6.0No synopsis available yet.
Midi trente
1972
6.1No synopsis available yet.
Nulle part ailleurs
1987
5.0No synopsis available yet.
Ciné regards
1978
7.3A 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
7.6On 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
Film credits
2010s · 2 titles
6.0Hours and historical meetings, Pierre Assouline has composed an anthology of the best extracts presented in the form of a primer, which he had commented on by a surprised Bernard Pivot.
Les vendredis d'Apostrophes
2015
5.1A short documentary about the life of director and artist René Laloux, featuring an interview with Laloux from 2001.
Fantastic Laloux
2010
1990s · 4 titles
6.5Four intertwining stories of bizarre occurrences in Paris featuring a man who was stolen away by fairies, a professor who becomes a tramp, the lovers who inherit a chateau – and the last tale that connects all that has gone before.
Three Lives and Only One Death
1996
8.0No synopsis available yet.
Comment devenir cinéaste sans se prendre la tête
1995
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Topor, Père et Fils
1993
A brief meeting with the writer and playwright Roland Topor in his studio.
Le Cinéma au travail comme la mort
1997
1980s · 3 titles
5.5In Belle Époque Paris, a 19th-century Parisian aristocrat falls in love with a lower-class prostitute who seduces him but never loves him.
Swann in Love
1984
2.8The setting is Les Fauvettes School for Girls just after WWI, where sternly Teutonic headmistress Ingrid Caven vies with Catherine Jourdan, a morphine addicted, fabric fetishist gym teacher, for the sexual favours of liquid eyed nymphet Scyluna. Meanwhile the chaplain conducts a nude exorcism.
The Satin Spider
1986
4.8In a train compartment, 6 people who do not know each other tell the story of their troubles in love. Only one of those seems to be a positive one.
The Ones That Got Away
1981
1970s · 10 titles
7.3A 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
5.3The 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
6.7Feature film.
Cartoon circus
1972
5.0A butcher dreams of becoming a famous director. He hires stars that he begins to kill.
The Butcher, the Star and the Orphan
1975
10.0Based 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
6.3Werner Herzog discusses the making of "Nosferatu" on set.
The Making of 'Nosferatu'
1979
9.0No synopsis available yet.
Destins parallèles
1979
7.2The 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
6.9Misadventures 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
NRRoger 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
1960s · 2 titles
6.5A model tells a television crew about her dreams of a life with prince charming all while fending off the lecherous advances of a horde of men.
Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?
1966
NRReport 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
Series credits
8.5Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.
Apostrophes
1975
6.0No synopsis available yet.
Midi trente
1972
6.1No synopsis available yet.
Nulle part ailleurs
1987
5.0No synopsis available yet.
Ciné regards
1978
Behind the camera
7.6On 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
6.5On 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
5.6When 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
5.9Unlucky 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
5.0A butcher dreams of becoming a famous director. He hires stars that he begins to kill.
The Butcher, the Star and the Orphan
1975
No synopsis available yet.
The Game
1975
4.6In 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
10.0Based 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
6.9In a distant planetoid, an industrious but hapless old farmer strives to make his vegetables flourish, however, to no avail.
The Snails
1966
7.1What 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
NRReport 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

