Dien Bien Phu (1992)

Interesting facts

• Budget: $27M

Diên Biên Phu is a French 1992 epic war film written and directed by French veteran Pierre Schoendoerffer. With its huge budget, all-star cast, and realistic war scenes produced with the cooperation of both the French and Vietnamese armed forces, Dîen Bîen Phu is regarded by many as one of the more important war movies produced in French filmmaking history. It portrays the 55-day siege of Dien Bien Phu (1954), one of the last battles by the French Union's colonial army in the First Indochina War during the final days of French Indochina, which was soon after divided into North and South Vietnam. This was a prelude to the Second Indochina War, known in the United States as the Vietnam War.

Production

Unlike many Hollywood Vietnam War blockbusters, Dîen Bîen Phu is, according to the director, more a docudrama based on real events, in the style of Tora! Tora! Tora!. Writer/director Pierre Schoendoerffer is a veteran of the battle; in 1952, volunteer Corporal Schoendoerffer joined the Service Cinématographique des Armées (French Army Cinematographic Service) as a cameraman.

On 11 March 1954, Schoendoerffer was injured at Dien Bien Phu, in a minor skirmish (Cote 781 attack) before the main battle, and he was sent to the southern base located in Saigon aboard a C-47 transport plane. Since there were no other cameramen remaining on the battlefield, Schoendoerffer insisted on returning to document the event.

Schoendoerffer was still injured and wore bandages when he chose to return to the battlefield. Officers told him "it's wasted, don't go!" ("c'est foutu, n'y va pas!"), but he insisted as "[he] had to be there to testify" as he planned to give his film to the pilots, after the battle, as an homage.

Schoendoerffer used a Bell & Howell 35mm black-and-white camera with three telephoto lenses mounted on a turret. This model is known for its highly flammable film but also for "its remarkable black and grey picture quality never seen again since" dixit Pierre Schoendoerffer.

On May 7, 1954, at 6 p.m., a half-hour after the French ceasefire (except for the strongpoint Isabelle still fighting until May 8 1:00 a.m.) he was ordered to get out of his Parachute Commandment blockhouse, where he was waiting with the officers Bigeard and Langlais and the military nurse Geneviève de Galard and subsequently became a Viet Minh POW.

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