Air France tops the bill

Air France has always supported cinema by screening films inflight.The first such (An American in Paris) took place as early as 1951 aboard a Lockheed Constellation between New York and Paris. But is has also supported it by working with film professionals.

In the 1930s, the Company was involved in film shoots, providing aircraft, crews and technical consultancy in exchange for on-screen visibility. TheAéropostale saga first inspired film makers, with Courrier Sud (1936), Mermoz (1943) and Le Grand Balcon (1949).
In 1942, Air France appeared in Casablanca, and then in 1948, in Aux Yeux du Souvenir, a feature-length film it produced itself (see photo). The romantic tale of love between an air hostess and an airline pilot (Michèle Morgan and Jean Marais) was a huge success, with over five million tickets sold. The film triggered an unexpected wave of vocations.

In the 1960s, aircraft embodied the glamour of this new “jet society”, and the Orly Sud air terminal, inaugurated in 1961, fascinated film makers with its futuristic décor, from Jean-Luc Godard (À Bout de Souffle – 1960) to Jacques Tati (Playtime – 1967) and Chris Marker for his experimental film La Jetée (1962). But air travel later became commonplace and the Air France fleet became part of the collective imagination, in Le distrait (1970), Moonraker (1979), OSS 117- Le Caire Nid d’Espions (2006) and, more recently, in Floride (2015), with Jean Rochefort.