Jan Blokker

Writing

Jan Blokker

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Fanfare poster
7.2

In the small Dutch village of Lagerheide, two members of the local brass band get into a fight, forcing the band to be split in two. The two hotheads and their followers are doing their utmost to sabotage each other’s attempts at becoming the band who will represent the village at the upcoming brass band competition.

Fanfare

1958

Eline Vere poster
6.3

This melodramatic film follows Eline Vere, as she attempts to break free from the confines of her narrow existence in The Hague through three tumultuous and ultimately disastrous courtships. Adaptation of Louis Couperus' novel Eline Vere.

Eline Vere

1991

A Gangstergirl poster
4.6

A successful young writer is in search of his true destiny. Is it the life with his wife and typewriter in Amsterdam or the offers to go to the dreamworld of the Italian film city Cinecittà which is luring him? Trying to find this out he goes into retreat in the house of a befriended gay couple in the south of France.

A Gangstergirl

1966

The van Paemel Family poster
5.7

The family patriarch Van Paemel is a farmer on baron de Wilde's estate. His mild-mannered son Désire is accidentally shot during a hunting party on the estate and remains an invalid. Eduard, the eldest son, is a member of the socialist workers' movement and involved in strike actions in the city. Against her father's wishes, his daughter Cordule starts an affair with the poacher Masco. His youngest daughter, Romanie, is forced to work as a domestic servant at the castle, where she is seduced by Maurice, the baron's son and heir, and becomes pregnant. When the youngest son Kamiel also has to leave the farm because he is drafted into the army, the lack of workers on Van Paemel's farm becomes critical. As a result, the family is evicted from their home because they cannot pay the rent. Three of the children emigrate to the USA, one becomes a nun and one dies, until only the farmer and his wife remain.

The van Paemel Family

1986

Monsieur Hawarden poster
6.4

A woman disguises herself as a man to avoid prosecution for murdering her lover fifteen years ago. She is the last living member of a wealthy Vienna family, and has spent the years after the murder traveling Europe with her female servant. Her travels provide her with an anonymous cloak that allows her freedom of movement but little peace of mind. Nearing middle age, the guilt and weariness of an empty life has her contemplating suicide as the only way out of her dilemma.

Monsieur Hawarden

1968

The Arrival of Joachim Stiller poster
6.5

An Antwerp journalist finds his daily life increasingly disrupted by unexplained phenomena, such as an authentic letter from 1919 that refers to an event taking place at a much later date. Because these disturbances are consistently linked to the name “Joachim Stiller,” the journalist becomes obsessed with it. The resolution, which is closely tied to his traumatic experiences from the Second World War, takes place with a psychiatrist—and later at an abandoned railway station in an Antwerp suburb. Interwoven with this is a subplot about an Antwerp art dealer who believes he can become rich through a new form of painting. To achieve this, he takes a mentally disabled artist hostage. The narrative also follows various romantic entanglements involving the journalist, which ultimately lead to his happy experience of fatherhood.

The Arrival of Joachim Stiller

1976

To Grab the Ring poster
10.0

This film takes a decidedly satirical look at the inner workings of the gangster underworld. Alfred Lowell is a washed-up actor sent to London to take care of some mob business. Alfred's mind is not on his job, as he prefers to probe his past for the reasons why he has failed as a thespian. He entertains thoughts of suicide, but his involvement in the gang prevents him from ending his life.

To Grab the Ring

1968

The Shining Armour poster
5.0

After losing sight of each other for 25 years, the paths of three childhood friends cross paths. It concerns successful conductor Victor Slingeland, successful writer Sander Vastenhout and general practitioner Bert Duprez. Slingeland enjoys a reputation as a womanizer. This intrigues Vastenhout who, as is often the case with authors, is without inspiration. Vastenhout sees the unraveling of Slingeland's complex personality as possible new material for a novel. With the help of Dr. Duprez, Vastenhout tries to find out about Slingeland's secret by imitating his behavior and thus challenging him.

The Shining Armour

1998