Pierre Schoendoerffer, who won an Oscar for the 1967 Vietnam War documentary The Anderson Platoon, died following an operation at a hospital outside Paris. The exact cause of death remains unclear. He was 83. While still in his 20s, Schoendoerffer served as a cameraman with the French army in the 1950s. As a result, he was present when the crucial fortress of Dien Bien Phu fell to the Vietnamese guerrilla army in May 1954, thus signaling the end of French rule in Indochina. Following his capture, Schoendoerffer spent four months in a Pow camp before being sent back to France. From the late '50s on, Schoendoerffer directed ten films, both narrative and documentary features, most of them related to his war experiences. As quoted in the New York Times, in 1994 Schoendoerffer explained that “the earth of Indochina still clings to my soul, just like the mud of the trenches used to stick to my boots.
- 3/15/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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