Roland Topor

Roland Topor (January 7, 1938 – April 16, 1997), was a French illustrator, painter, writer, filmmaker and actor, known for the surreal nature of his work.

He is mainly known as an illustrator and graphic artist and famous for combining surrealism with black humor. His unique world is full of absurd and impossible situations, rather than creepy and non-sense.

Cinema and TV: Topor was responsible for the odd visual style of the Czech/French animated sci-fi feature La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) (1973). He also collaboreted with Federico Fellini, making some drawings featured in the film “Casanova" (1975). As a screenwriter, Topor penned a number of stories, like the silent comedy La Fille du Garde Barriere (1975) and with his friend Henri Xhonneaux the film “Marquis" (1989) about Marquis De Sade . He also created a puppet show called "Telechat" which ran for two years on French station Antenne 2 with 234 episodes.

As a writer: wrote the novel The Tenant (Le Locataire chimérique, 1964), which was adapted to film by Roman Polanski in 1976.