''The Blockhouse'' is a 1973

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Clive Rees Clive Frederick William Rees (born 6 October 1951 in Singapore) is a former Welsh rugby union player. He won thirteen caps as left wing for Wales between 1973 and 1983. Clive Rees's rugby career started at Llanelli Grammar School in the late 19 ...

and starring

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...

and

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour ( , ; born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, hy, Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնավուրեան, ; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a French-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his dist ...

. It is based on a 1955 novel by

Jean-Paul Clébert Jean-Paul Clébert (born 23 February 192621 September 2011) was a French writer. Biography Before completing his studies in a Jesuit college, Jean-Paul Clébert left to join the French Resistance in 1943 at the age of 16. After the liberati ...

. It was filmed entirely in

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

and was entered into the

23rd Berlin International Film Festival The 23rd annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 22 June to 3 July 1973. The Golden Bear was awarded to the Indian film ''Ashani Sanket'' by Satyajit Ray. Jury The following people were announced as being on the jury for the fes ...

Premise

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

, a mixed group of forced labourers held by German forces take shelter from the bombardment inside a German

bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. ...

, but are then entombed when the entrances are blocked by shelling damage. By coincidence, the bunker is a storehouse, so the prisoners have enough food and wine to last them for years. However, they are trapped not for years but permanently, and the film analyses how they deal with their underground prison, with their relationships, and with death.

Cast

as Rouquet *

as Visconti *

Jeremy Kemp Edmund Jeremy James Walker (3 February 1935 – 19 July 2019), known professionally as Jeremy Kemp, was an English actor. He was known for his significant roles in the miniseries ''The Winds of War'' and ''War and Remembrance'', the film ''The ...

as Grabinski *

Per Oscarsson Per Oscar Heinrich Oscarsson (28 January 1927 – 31 December 2010) was a Swedish actor. He is best known for his role in the 1966 film ''Hunger'', which earned him a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. Early life Oscarsson was born, along ...

as Lund *

Peter Vaughan Peter Vaughan (born Peter Ewart Ohm; 4 April 1923 – 6 December 2016) was an English character actor known for many supporting roles in British film and television productions. He also acted extensively on the stage. He is perhaps best known ...

as Aufret * Nicholas Jones as Kromer *

Leon Lissek Leon Lissek (19 January 1939 – 13 January 2022) was an Australian-born British actor. He appeared in over 80 films in his career, which started with ''Marat/Sade''. Lissek was well known for his television roles in ''The Sullivans'' and ''Eas ...

as Kozhek *

Alfred Lynch Alfred Cornelius Lynch (26 January 1931 – 16 December 2003) was an English actor on stage, film and television. Early life Lynch was born in Whitechapel, London, the son of a plumber. After attending a Catholic school, he worked in a drawing o ...

as Larshen

Production

The book and film appear to have been inspired by a possibly true story: On 25 June 1951, ''Time'' magazine reported that two

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

soldiers claimed to have been trapped for six years in an underground storehouse in

Babie Doły Babie ( hu, Bábafalva) is a village and municipality in the Vranov nad Topľou District in the Prešov Region of Slovakia. Population According to the 2011 census, the municipality had 252 inhabitants. All inhabitants were Slovaks. Genealogi ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Edgar Bronfman Jnr, when only a teenager, was working on one of his father's films in London while on summer vacation. He came across a script called ''The Blockhouse'' by John Gould and Clive Rees. In the summer of 1972 Bronfman and Anthony Rufus-Isaacs combined to produce the film, which was shot in Guernsey (Channel Islands), under the direction of Rees. Filming took place in June 1972. "I've fallen in love with producing" said Bronfman "and I plan to make it my life's work." "It's a film for the connoisseurs of cinema," said Sellers. "It's a very heavy movie. It could easily put you on a downer... Clive Rees, who directed it, is brilliant, every bit as good as Stanley Kubrick.

Release

The film was shown at the Berlin Film Festival but was never given a general release in Britain. Hemdale recut the film adding footage to show time passing, and putting in a new ending where the two lead characters survived. (In real life the two survivors died almost immediately after being released.) The film was re-released on Blu-ray by Powerhouse Films in January 2022.

Reception

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' states that "the film tries to study men in a terrible, claustrophobic setting, but it never reveals the true nature of the characters or a metaphysical reason for their predicament. A worthy idea that sadly goes nowhere." However, the film does currently hold a 73% approval rating (based on 126 reviews) on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blockhouse, The 1970s war drama films 1973 films British war drama films 1970s English-language films Films based on French novels Films set in the Channel Islands Films set in Guernsey Golan-Globus films Films scored by Stanley Myers 1973 drama films British World War II films 1970s British films Films set in bunkers