Looking for a book on aviation cinema

[rreis]

Glad it was of interest, as were all the other suggestions, my cheap shots aside.

I've asked a friend of mine about the mystery book, and we'll see...

Amelia. As an aviation enthusiast and a reasonably discerning film watcher, I can certainly recommend the recent film. It's neither a great piece of cinematic art, but nor is it as bad as its box-office shortfall would imply. There's lots of good flying (although not too much!) some done by several WIX members here - fleet16b and Eric Presten.

Another for your list might be 'Ceiling Zero' starring Jimmy Cagney. Although derived from a stage play, and thus more in the flight office than featuring actual flying, it's good on the change from the devil-may care mail pilot pioneers to the more procedural careful 'company men'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ceiling_zero.jpg

Can't go wrong with the rest of your list, particularly Hawk's Only Angels..., while your challenge will be to get Porco Rosso in there! Pioneering air pirate?

Calling Baranca...

eheh, I had Ceiling Zero already on a offline list (well, better to post my update list bellow). Yes, I've been hammering my head around how to context Porco Rosso. It's one of those you just got to have! One of my favorites of all times, surely.

Updated list:

- "They Flew Alone", by director-producer Herbert Wilcox, 1942
- "The red tent", Mikhail Kalatozov., 1969
- "The Spirit of St. Louis", Billy Wilder, 1957
- "The right stuff", Philip Kaufman, 1983
- "Only Angels Have Wings", Howard Hawks, 1939
- "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, Or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes", Ken Annakin, 1965.
- "Baboona", Mrs&Mr Martin Johnson, 1935
- "Air Mail", John Ford, 1932
- "Around the World via Graf Zeppelin" (documentary; Talking Picture Epics 1930)
- "Ceiling Zero', Howard Hawks, 1935
- "Atlantic Flight", 1937
- "Valery Chjkalov" (USSR "Wings of Victory"; Artkino 1941) D: Mikhail Kalatozov
- "Ciel est à Vous", Le (France "The Sky is Yours"; UFA 1943, 105m ) D: Jean Grémillon
- "Conquest of the Air" (Great Britain; docudrama, Lion 1938 or 1940) D: Alexander Korda
- "The Great Air Race', Marcus Cole, 1990
- "Amelia", Mira Nair, 2009
- "A Thousand Skies", David Stevens, 1985
- "Porco Rosso", Hayao Miyazaki, 1992
- "Dakota", Wim Verstappen, 1974
- "Dead Aviators", David Wellington, 1999
- "Dirigible", Frank Capra, 1931

ZeamerB17: thanks, great find (sometimes, there is an obvious place to search...)

but, goddamn, the man doesn't ship abroad or answer questions! well, where's a will, there's a way!

(edit, update list)

Last edited by rreis on Mon Dec 13, 2010 5:46 am, edited 3 times in total.

[ZeamerB17]

All hail Zeamer!

Actually, that's not my last name, it's one of my heroes' last name. Glad I could help.

Now don't any of you guys go snaking that out from under rreis.

[Jerry O'Neill]

I don't have it in front of me right now, but there are these smaller books about various films. Usually more like a dissection of the film by a noted author. I have one for the "Right Stuff" and "Jaws". There's a lot of extra info in these books, sometimes about the filming versus strictly about the script.

Are you thinking of the British Film Institute (BFI) Film Guides?

http://bfifilmbookguide.blogspot.com/HTH,

BINGO James! I just couldn't think of it last night!
Jerry