Schoendoerffer, Pierre

(May 5, 1928, Chamalières, Puy-de-Dôme, France - )

   A true lover of adventure who grew up reading Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Herman Melville, and Joseph Conrad novels, he sailed on a Swedish cargo ship as a seaman (1947-1948). In 1952, he joined the French army and went to In­dochina as a war correspondent for the army's Cin­ematographic Service. Two years later, he took part in the battle of Diên Biên Phû and was captured by the Vietminh. Having returned to France, he resumed his professional activities, collaborating on such maga­zines as Paris-Match, Paris-Presse, and Life Magazine and shooting reports for famous French TV programs (Cinq Colonnes à la Une; Sept Jours du Monde). Thanks to writer Joseph Kessel, he directed his first movie in 1956. His documentary on an American platoon during the Vietnam War (La Section Anderson / USA: The Anderson Platoon, 1967) earned him an Academy Award and the admiration of Howard Hawks, who planned to hire him to co-direct a motion picture. Except for his last novel (2003 L'Aile du Papillon, Grasset), all his literary works were brought to the screen. In 1989, John Milius adapted his book L'Adieu au Roi (Farewell to the King). He has two sons, director Frédéric Schoendoerffer (b. 1962) and actor Ludovic Schoendoerffer.

 Filmography

1957 ◘ Thau le Pêcheur (short)

1959 ◘ La Passe du Diable / I figli di Gengis-Khan / El desfilaredo del diablo (co-director with Jacques Dupont; France / Italy / Spain; shot in 1956)

        ◘ Ramuntcho (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist)

        ◘ Pêcheur d'Islande (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter)

1963 ◘ Attention .. . Hélicoptère (documentary; short)

        ◘ La 317e Section / UK and USA: 317th Platoon / 317th Section (also original novel, screenwriter, adapter, dialogist; France / Italy / Spain)

        ◘ Objectif: 500 Millions / Obiettivo 500 millioni / USA: Objective 500 Million (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist; France / Italy)

1972 ◘ Sept Jours en Mer (documentary; short)

1977 ◘ Le Crabe-Tambour / US video: Drummer-Crab (also original novel, co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist)

1982 ◘ L'Honneur d'un Capitaine / USA: A Captain's

        ◘ Honor (also co-screenwriter, co-dialogist)

1992 ◘ Diên Biên Phû (also screenwriter, dialogist, narrator)

2003 ◘ Là-haut, un Roi au-dessus des Nuages (also original novel, co-screenwriter, co-dialogist; shot in 2001)

 Television Filmography

1967 ◘ La Section Anderson / USA: The Anderson Platoon (documentary)

1972 ◘ Sentinelles du matin 1987 Reminiscences (documentary)