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‘Roland Topor was the modern enfant terrible of French art and letters. He was short and leprechaun-like, giving the impression of constant, untiring activity. He dabbled in films, produced art derived from Surrealism, and could seldom be accused of good taste. In 1962, he created the Panic Movement (mouvement panique), together with Alejandro Jodorowsky and Fernando Arrabal. Inspired by and named after the god Pan, and influenced by Luis Buñuel and Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty, the group concentrated on chaotic performance art and surreal imagery. Among the films made from Topor’s written work was Roman Polanski’s The Tenant (1976), which was recently reissued in 2006 with an introduction by the writer Thomas Ligotti. Topor also worked as an actor, his most famous part being Renfield in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979).
‘His greatest success was as a macabre cartoonist. He used his work to illustrate his novels, plays and other writings, produced many volumes of graphics, and exhibited his work widely in galleries both in France and abroad. His drawings in many ways resembled the graphic novels of Max Ernst and the similarly grim work of the Alsatian artist Tomi Ungerer, but the humour was always there in the absurd situations he depicted, many based on fantastical images of the deeper associations of sex and erotica, others on pictures that linked mankind to the world of worms and insects or reptiles.
‘Although ebullient in public, it was known among his friends that he had black periods of extreme depression, and the bizarre fantasies that he drew and painted undoubtedly reflected a mind that brooded on death and decay and the many germs and viruses that live in our bodies. His novels tackled the same themes, cruelty and metamorphosis being depicted in a matter-of-fact, unemotional way, his characters Rabelaisian and his plots stretching the imagination to its limits. Coprophagy is a frequent theme and religion a favourite target in much of his work. Giving offence came so naturally to Topor that he was almost unaware of the shocked reactions he was likely to get, as for instance from the series of dialogues, accompanied by drawings, examining all the possible uses of a baby, starting by nailing one to your front door.
‘Toward the end of his life, Topor wrote the screenplay for the cultishly revered film Marquis (1989), directed by Henri Xhonneux and 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.” He also co-wrote and was the production designer of the innovative and popular animated film Fantastic Planet, directed by René Laloux. At the age of 59 Topor suffered a massive stroke and brain haemorrhage in 1997, having appeared until then in the best of health.’ — collaged from various sources
Roland Topor’s self-designed grave marker
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Further
Topor et moi: A Roland Topor Resource
Roland Topor Page @ Facebook
Books in English by Roland Topor
Roland Topor’s books @ goodreads
A Roland Topor Photo Gallery
Roland Topor posts @ Thomas Ligotti Online
‘Roland Topor, a Graphic Wit’ @ The New York Times
‘The Wilder Planet of Roland Topor’
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Portrait Gallery
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Films
‘Les Escargot (1965) was a collaboration between Roland Topor and director Renee Laloux, but it is Topor’s distinctive visual sensibility that dominates. Les Escargot is apocalyptic, teeming with allegory of self-perpetuated human destruction. Like in other works by Topor, the ordinary is blown up to monstrous and absurd proportions. Fed by plants stimulated by human tears, enormous garden snails run amok, destroying the cities.’ — Ashcan Magazine
‘What is man ? Man makes war, man kills man, man hunts, man is executed. Les Temps Morte (1966) is montage film mixing original drawings by Roland Topor and direction by Rene Laloux involving both original shots and stock shots that ironically analyze what man is.’ — worldnews
‘Roland Topor and René Laloux’s Fantastic Planet (1973) is a sci-fi epic like none you’ve ever seen. A 70’s euro-funk soundtrack backs the eerie psychedelic visuals of an alien world. On the fantastic planet, humans are kept as pets by the gigantic Oms, a blue-skinned humanoid species who live for thousands of years and have a highly evolved culture and technology. Revolutionary metaphors abound, and like much science fiction literature, but unlike most science fiction movies, the film is really about our contemporary situation despite the fantastical setting.’ — Justin Allen
Trailer
Excerpt
Roland Topor: The Unrecognizable Genius Behind FANTASTIC PLANET
‘Roland Topor and Henri Xhonneux’s Marquis (1989) is an audacious rendering of the political, social and sexual manners of the ancien regime and the class division and social disruption that produced the French Revolution. Adapted from the writings of the Marquis de Sade, this witty film uses elaborate puppets in human form to act out erotic and sexual decadence. Marquis is an elegantly naughty film with wry, intellectual satire that plays out all manner of human desire.’ — J. Hoberman
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Miscelaneous
Roland Topor in Herzog’s ‘Nosferatu’
Roland Topor [1983] : Les archives de Radio Nova
Roland Topor, un petit film
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100 Good Reasons to Kill Myself Right Now
by Roland Topor
1) Best way to make sure I’m not dead already.
2) It’ll throw off the last census.
3) They’re waiting on me down below to start the party.
4) They shoot horses, don’t they?
5) I’ll rise in the esteem of my peers.
6) I’ll no longer dread the millennium.
7) Just like Werther! They won’t call me ill-read anymore.
8) I’d make a fool of my cancer.
9) I’d make a liar of my horoscope.
10) To be my therapist’s ruin.
11) To get out of voting.
12) An infallible cure for baldness.
13) To make a fresh start!
14) Death ennobles: knighthood at last!
15) I’d feel less alone.
16) I’d be fêted next All Saints’ Day.
17) The cost of living rises, but death remains affordable.
18) Good way to find your roots.
19) Finally, a martial arts move I can manage.
20) To be green and fertilize the lawn.
21) To mark the day with a white stone.
22) Others could put my organs to better use.
23) To make way for youth.
24) At last, a starring role!
25) To take advantage of the exhibitionism inherent in dissection tables.
26) To taste the subtle delights of reincarnation.
27) The nightmare of leap years, over at last!
28) To give my body of work a moral dimension.
29) To make people think I’m honorable.
30) To turn this list into a last will and testament.
31) I’ll become a citizen of the world.
32) Euthanasia wasn’t made for dogs.
33) I’ll have the last word.
34) 67% of French people support the death penalty.
35) ‘Cause it’s a good way to quit smoking.
36) To simplify my duality: I’ll see things more clearly with only one of me left.
37) A deliverance less laborious than a delivery.
38) There’s nothing left to do.
39) I don’t want to aggravate my lack of social security.
40) To kill a Jew, like everyone else.
41) To join the silent majority. The real one.
42) To leave behind a widow simply bursting with youth.
43) I can’t live in worry now that my deodorant’s stopped working.
44) To dodge the general draft.
45) To preserve the mystery surrounding me.
46) To prove the neutron bomb can’t hurt me.
47) To lose weight without a diet, or even lifting a finger!
48) I insist on complying with the federal plan for staggered vacations.
49) I’m trying to spare someone else the unfortunate consequences of an assassination.
50) To save energy, coffee, and sugar.
51) So I won’t be ashamed to look in the mirror anymore.
52) What if I’m immortal? Might as well find out as soon as possible.
53) One less mouth to feed.
54) To prove to EVERYONE that I’m no coward.
55) To count how many people cry at my funeral.
56) To see, from the other side, if I’ve made it over.
57) Instead of tearing my gray hairs out one by one, might as well tear my head off all at once.
58) With a revolver: to be noisy after 10pm.
59) With gas: to savor the charms of that last cigarette.
60) By hanging: to turn an ordinary rope into a delightful good luck charm.
61) Under a train: to extend other people’s vacations.
62) With barbiturates: think I’ll sleep in tomorrow morning.
63) By electrocution: to shake things up a little.
64) By defenestration: to escape my fear of elevators.
65) I’ve heard death is an easy lay. I’m gonna have me some good times.
66) If I put my subscriptions on hold, I won’t miss a thing.
67) To be good with (tiny) animals.
68) To die the same year as Elvis.
69) To skip out on taxes.
70) To skip out on rent.
71) To stop snoring.
72) To come back in the wee hours and tug on my enemies’ feet.
73) To keep from ripping myself off as I get older, like de Chirico.
74) Because I’m an endangered species and no one is protecting me.
75) Because I’ve prepared a choice phrase for the final moment, and if I wait too long I’ll forget it.
76) To sever my umbilical cord once and for all.
77) To be the founder of a new style: Dead Art.
78) To watch the movie of my life at a very exclusive screening.
79) To see if there are any virgins left on the other side.
80) So they’ll deck me out when they lay me out.
81) Because I can’t wait to use the amusing epitaph I made up: GOOD RIDDANCE.
82) To see if paralytics will be healed on my tomb.
83) So the twentieth century will finally contain an important event.
84) To feast on the exquisite blood of young women, once I’m a vampire.
85) Because I’ve always wanted to speak a dead tongue.
86) So I can, quite strikingly, inform everyone of my position on suicide.
87) Because Paris just isn’t what it used to be.
88) Because Groucho Marx is dead.
89) Because I’ve read all the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
90) Because weather forecasts let me down.
91) So others will follow my example.
92) To start a revolution.
93) To prove my skill, if I don’t miss.
94) For a change of friends.
95) For a change of scene.
96) To be above the law.
97) Because a well-done suicide is worth more than an average lay.
98) So I won’t die at a hospital.
99) So my blood will make a nice stain on a canvas.
100) Because I’ve got 1,000 good reasons to hate myself.
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Drawings & paintings
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*
p.s. Hey. ** l@rst, For sure. Hey, L! ** _Black_Acrylic, I love the Chucky movies. I wish they’d make a new one, but they’d probably use AI and fuck it up. I remember ‘Bride of Chucky’ being especially fun, but I don’t know. ** kenley, Good morning to you, kenley! Yeah, the immersive art thing is just high tech banality from everything I’ve seen. They make you appreciate how great windows are. Um, I’ve been to theater pieces where you walk through a space or building and the piece unfolds as you move around. I went to that famous one where you’re a guest at, I think, Tony and (someone’s) wedding. That was irksome. And of course some haunted houses that do that — minimalist with lots of projections and effects and ‘scary’ monologues, as they were quite the trendy Halloween thing for a while. I like old school haunted houses where there’s a kind of theater element. Where your traversing of the haunt is interrupted with little play-like scenes that give the experience a kind of narrative. So, in that sense, I have, I guess. And I do think haunts are the best context for that kind of thing. I’ll be onto Peter Vack as soon as I finish having to reapply for my French visa, as that’s kind of eating my brain and stressing me out at the moment. Thanks! ** Carsten, I did read his Wenders thing, yeah, nice. I’m ok with Wenders up through ‘Wings of Desire’, but nothing since then. And I never thought he was remotely great. I like Kid Congo Powers. I’ve peripherally known him since he was the President of the LA chapter of The Ramones Fan Club when he was a teen. They showed a whole bunch of Frampton’s films. The ones I can remember at the moment were ‘Pas de Trois’, ‘Public Domain’, ‘Cadenzas I & XIV’, and ‘Gloria!’. ** Dominik, Hi!!! I’m so happy you liked it. I have a hard time with TV series anyway, and I have a hard time settling for better than average shows, and it’s probably also because the two main actors in the show look so blandly conventionally clean cut ‘attractive’ that I can’t imagine being interested in whoever they play. I like winter, but it’s been chilly and rainy here every day for way too long. It’s the sameness that’s getting kind of crazy making, I guess. I volunteer to be a consultant on love’s true crime show. Love wondering what it’s like to take a bubble bath but not enough to actually take one, G. ** Thom, Thanks, Thom, I look forward to listening! I’ll put on my conceptual cap while I listen. I like pop songs, or, well, attempts to ace ones. (see: this weekend’s post) Robert Pollard is my living god, after all. If the ‘Glossolalia’ album is there, I’ll hit that up too. Thank you about ‘God Jr’. Short novels rule. It’s stupid that in the US novels are rarely taken seriously by the literary cognoscenti unless they’re giant-sized. Yeah, Heikens’ isn’t my usual thing, but something about them made me itchy. Happy day! ** Steve, I ate at the defunct Chinese place the previous time I was in NYC, and it was packed. ‘Iron Lung’ isn’t here yet, and I haven’t found it on the free sites so far. I saw ‘Goodbar’ when it was released, and I hardly remember it other than not being as disturbed by it as it clearly intended. I’d be curious to visit it again now, yeah. ** Bill, Yeah, ‘It Was Just an Accident’ snuck through. ‘Reflections in a Dead Diamond’: nice title. ** Uday, That’s understandable. Great, just enjoy NYC’s vast and uneven pleasures. Breakfast … no, not normally. Just coffee. Although I do like breakfast for dinner sometimes. I like omelettes and hash browns and buttered toast. ** HaRpEr //, At their best they’re kind of like G-rated Guro. Now I have to go watch ‘The Trial’ so I can see that bedroom. I was just reading about ‘Actors’. How strange. Maybe it was programmed at the Berlinale? I can’t remember. Poetry chapbook, cool. Kind of a lost great form, I think? ** horatio, Hey! Thank you, thank you for your letter/care package! The collages have been staring at me from atop a stack of unread books at the back of my desk for days now. They’re wonderful. And thank you for the recipe. I’m going to have to see if I can do it without the salmon because I’m vegetarian, but I’m sure I can sort out an alternative. Anyway, that was and is so great of you! Thank you, my friend! Yeah, when I wrote ‘Closer’ I had this idea that the equal length/size paragraphs would have this kind of trancey effect, like a train going over train tracks or something, that would counteract the attention the reader had to pay to the characters and story and so on and create a kind of crosshatched effect. It was a style I was super into for a while. Thank you for noting it. How are you? What’re you doing of late? ** darbz (⊙ 0⊙ ), Oh, gosh, how did the interview go? No news on the possible NC screening yet, but I hope to hear something soon. We just set up screenings in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but that won’t help you. I love the pix of you! You look very, very cool! Big up about the Machinegirl gig. Oh, I missed your question? I guess they either duck under a very tall tree or they just tough it out? Good question. ** Okay. I did a post here about Roland Topor years ago, and I went back to restore it, and I thought it was crappy, so I just made a whole new Roland Topor post. A bit of behind-the-scenes trivia for you there. See you tomorrow.
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