1-World Festival of Foreign Films
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"The 317th Platoon"
1965
Directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer

 A brilliant evocation of the senselessness  of war during the last days of the French occupation of Indochina, based on Schoendoerffer's own experiences of being taken prisoner at Dien Buen Phu. The film tells of the platoon's retreat, focusing on a career soldier and the commanding young lieutenant as they make their way through ambushes, betrayals, rain, jungle, villages, pain, disease and inexorable fatigue to inevitable annihilation. With awesome cinematography by Raoul Coutard. (Both the director and cinematographer of this film are veterans of the French Vietnam war.)  "The opening night audience watched with rapt attention, in hypnotic silence and burst into a storm of emotional applause at its end." - New York Herald Tribune.  "The finest French war film since Renoir made La Grande Illusion." - Daily Mail.  With Jacques Perrin, Bruno Cremer, Pierre Fabre and Manuel Zarzo. French with English subtitles, B&W.  94 minutes.