Watch VoirFilms. Born in Chaville in 1897 and having died in Paris in 1990, Philippe Soupault was a poet, a politically engaged journalist, a radio broadcaster, and the author of numerous novels. In 1919, Soupault and his friend Breton engaged in early experiments with automatic writing. The resulting texts were published under the title "Les Champs magnétiques" (Magnetic Fields), a work that would become a landmark in the history of the Surrealist movement. Soupault contributed to the early days of "La Révolution surréaliste" but ceased his involvement with the movement to embark on a series of journeys across Europe, America, and Russia.