Pierre Schoendoerffer

Selective Filmography:

1958: The Devil's Pass (doc)
1959: Iceland Fisherman
1965: The 317th Platoon
1977: The Drummer Crab
1992: Dien Bien Phu
2004: Above the Clouds

Selection:

1997

Pierre Schoendoerffer was born in 1928 in Chamalières. In 1956, Pierre Schoendoerffer, profoundly touched by participating for eyars in several International conflicts, starts a new career doing war movies. He co-directs a documentary together with Jacques Dupont after a script done by Joseph Kessel, Th Devil's Pass, shot entirely in Afghanistan. Back in France, he directs two adaptations of novels by Pierre Loti, Ramuncho and Iceland Fisherman before becoming a war reporter again and focusing on documentaries, regularly screened on small screen. In 1963, he makes another long feature, The 317th Platoon, yet another insight of the Vietnam conflict based upon his own novel. In 1977, Pierre Schoendoerffer adapts yet another of his own novels, The Crab Drummer, with Jean Rochefort and Jacques Dufilho, who both earns the French Oscar (César) as Best Actor and Best Secondary Actor. In 1982, he directs A Captain's Honor, before taking a long break of ten years and then directing the autobiographical Dien Bien Phu, based upon his personal experience in Vietnam.