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The Blockhouse
The Blockhouse
	British theatrical poster
Directed by	Clive Rees
Screenplay by	John Gould; Clive Rees;
Based on	novel Le Blockhaus by Jean-Paul Clébert
Produced by	Edgar Bronfman Jr.; Antony Rufus Isaacs;
Starring	Peter Sellers; Charles Aznavour;
Cinematography	Keith Goddard
Edited by	Peter Gold
Music by	Stanley Myers
Distributed by	Cannon Films
Release date	6 June 1973;
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Blockhouse is a 1973 drama film directed by Clive Rees and starring Peter Sellers and Charles Aznavour.^[1]^[2] It is based on the 1955 novel Le Blockhaus by Jean-Paul Clébert.^[3] It was filmed entirely in Guernsey in the Channel Islands and was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival.^[4]^[5]

Premise

On D-Day, a mixed group of forced labourers held by German forces take shelter from the bombardment inside a German bunker, 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

Peter Sellers as Rouquet
Charles Aznavour as Visconti
Jeremy Kemp as Grabinski
Per Oscarsson as Lund
Peter Vaughan as Aufret
Nicholas Jones as Kromer
Leon Lissek as Kozhek
Alfred Lynch 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 soldiers claimed to have been trapped for six years in an underground storehouse in Babie Doły, Poland.^[6]^[7]

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.^[8]

"I've fallen in love with producing" said Bronfman "and I plan to make it my life's work."^[9]

"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.^[10]

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.)^[11] Cannon Films initially acquired U.S. theatrical rights, and gave it a limited release beginning in January 1974.

The film was initially released on DVD by MGM in 2005, and later re-released on Blu-ray by Powerhouse Films in January 2022.^[12]

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This real-life horror story ...begins with a remarkably deft if conventional prologue, describing the work routine in a Nazi slave labour camp and the confusion created by a naval bombardment which leads to the main characters' entombment. The lively camerawork and editing in this sequence lends an edge of expectancy as to how the film – as much as its characters – will subsequently face up to the cruel confinement. Its response, unfortunately, turns out to be a painfully solemn and unrewarding self-martyrdom. Once the characters are over their ecstatic discovery of sufficient food and other necessities to keep them in a style to which they've never been accustomed, and the first hints of conflict (and even of clear character delineation) have been worn away by the encroaching boredom, the film simply settles down to record their physical degeneration. It piously refuses to detach itself from their experience, and to offer any kind of reflection on the situation which would enable the viewer to apprehend it as anything other than an uncomfortable way to spend an hour and a half. The international mixture of star names in the cast rather baldly and inadequately conjures up the crosssection of pillaged Europe which these slave workers represent. But given the film's minimal dramatic means, its refusal to supply much in the way of personal histories or social backgrounds, these star personas are occasionally driven dangerously close to the surface: when the film allows itself a rare comic interlude, for instance, as schoolteacher Peter Sellers tries to work out his own confusion about how the game of dominoes could be of both English and Greek origin, it suddenly seems as if Sellers is emerging from the shadows to play Inspector Clouseau. Only Jeremy Kemp, as the strong and silent figure of authority, benefits from the reticence of the film – which otherwise comes across as a Pinter play without the Pinter dialogue. Despite its barrenness, finally, there is something tautological about The Blockhouse: its painstakingly murky, ill-lit visuals becoming an unnecessary representation of its thematic obscurity and its dimness of character."^[13]

TV Guide 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."^[14]

The film currently holds a 73% approval rating (based on 126 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes.^[15]

References

^ "The Blockhouse". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
^ "The Blockhouse". BFI Player.
^ "The Blockhouse jean-Paul Clebert SFBC Science Fiction Book Club Bunker Babie DolyNo title". www.gostak.org.uk.
^ "IMDB.com: Awards for The Blockhouse". imdb.com. Retrieved 1 July 2010.
^ BLOCKHOUSE, The Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 45, Iss. 528, (Jan 1, 1978): 213.
^ "Buried Alive For Six Years". Eugene Register-Guard. 18 June 1951. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
^ "In Babie Doly". Time magazine. 25 June 1951. Archived from the original on 18 February 2009.
^ MOVIES: Peter Sellers paces his 'life after death' SISKEL, GENE. Chicago Tribune 25 June 1972: k4.
^ Ah, To Be 18 and a Movie Mogul!: ALSO OPENING THIS WEEK SUSPENSEFUL PERRY SELECTED SHORTS FINAL CURTAIN MORE WHITMORE WHERE'S WINNER? To Be 18 and a Mogul! By A. H. WEILER. New York Times 13 May 1973: 127.
^ Sellers' market: In London, Bart Mills interviews Peter Sellers about his unfulfilled ambition. Sellers, Peter. The Guardian (1959-2003); London (UK) [London (UK)]10 Mar 1973: 8.
^ Clive Rees Sight and Sound; London Vol. 58, Iss. 3, (Summer 1989): 146.
^ "The Blockhouse - le".
^ "The Blockhouse". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 45 (528): 213. 1 January 1978 – via ProQuest.
^ "The Blockhouse". TV Guide. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
^ "The Blockhouse". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 21 April 2017.