Air France loves the cinema: Episode 3 "1959-1981"
Closer ties between Air France and the cinema.
This twenty-year period was marked by closer ties between Air France and the cinema, in a context of rapid and profound transformation of the air transport industry, affirming a form of national and industrial power.
The 1960s and 1970s marked a new era in the history of the airline and modern commercial aviation, which was inseparable from the political approach under the Gaullist era (1959-1969) and from major developments, such as the entry into the jet era (launch of the Caravelle and the Boeing 707 in 1959/1960) symbolised by giant and functional infrastructures, aiming to improve passenger traffic and establish France's place in a global world (Orly South terminal in 1961, Orly West in 1971 and Roissy CDG 1 in 1974), the internationalisation and democratisation of mass transport following the arrival of wide-bodied aircraft (Boeing 747 in 1970, Airbus A300 in 1972) and new travel options ("Vols Vacances" in 1979), and technological innovations linked to IT and supersonic flight (Paris-Rio by Concorde in 1976).
At the same time, there was an impressive increase in the number of films, both French and international, in which Air France has appeared, both in cinema d'auteur (Tati, Costa Gavras) and in popular cinema on a local and global scale (from comedies that have become classics, with Louis de Funès and Pierre Richard, to the cosmopolitan and exotic world of James Bond).
