The only film ever directed by the Dutch actress/artist Sylvia Kristel (1952–2012), and a skilled enough piece of work to make one regret that she didn’t helm anything else. The animated TOPOR AND ME (TOPOR ET MOI, 2004) only lasts 11 minutes, but Kristel packs in a great deal of thematic heft, imparting whimsical ruminations on the price of fame and the nature of art while providing concise biographical portraits of herself and the late French provocateur Roland Topor.
Kristel packs in a great deal of thematic heft, imparting whimsical ruminations on the price of fame and the nature of art while providing concise biographical portraits of herself and the late French provocateur Roland Topor.
The latter, depicted here as a cigar smoking, top hat wearing jester, was a pivotal influence on Kristel’s life and artistic development. The two came together after the monumental success of EMMANUELLE (1974), a French made adaptation of the scandalous erotic novel by “Emmanuelle Arsan” (Marayat Bibidh) that starred Krystal, who in later years shifted her focus to graphic art.
All this is covered in TOPOR AND ME, which is narrated by Krystal. The success of EMMANUELLE, we learn, came after the film was given an X rating and shelved for two years, due to the fact that its producers didn’t want it to be released in porno theaters. The gamble payed off, as it went on to reach the “magic number” of 100 million viewers. At the same time, unknown to Kristel, Topor was becoming the “darling of the avant-garde” in Amsterdam.
Kristel, being a pragmatic sort, reasoned that “The average sex bomb was dead by my age, (if not) murdered or constantly in a drunken stupor,” and put her drawing skills to work. This attracted the attention of Topor, who commissioned Kristel to illustrate one of his novels.
A few years later she was ushered into Topor’s studio. There “strange things happened” that, as depicted here, involved a procession of giant snails, a head in a stroller and the creation of art through cigar ashes and spilled wine. Kristel emerged from this encounter with a new, freewheeling artistic outlook.
The animation in which all this is conveyed was pulled off by Kristel’s fellow countryman Juan de Graaf (who further profiled Kristel in 2018’s L.A. KRISTEL). It has a distinct look and style, yet is fluid enough to seamlessly incorporate Topor’s sketchy surrealism, Krystal’s more refined (but just as surreal) artwork, background paintings by Milan Hulsing and cartoon recreations of scenes from EMMANUELLE. Images flow and fade into each other in, appropriately for a film about graphic art, a consistently fluid and ever-changing “reality.”
A trifle this film undeniably is. Furthermore, it’s a trifle that probably won’t interest anyone without an investment in Sylvia Kristel or Roland Topor, but for those of us who do value them TOPOR AND ME is a goldmine.
Vital Statistics
TOPOR AND ME (TOPOR ET MOI)
Cineventura
Director: Sylvia Kristel
Producer: Ruud den Drijver
Screenplay: Ruud den Drijver
Cast: Sylvia Kristel