Les chevaliers du ciel (2005)

Director:

Gérard Pirès

Writers:

Gilles Malençon (adaptation)
Gilles Malençon (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 November 2005 (Belgium)

Genre:

Adventure | Action

Tagline:

'Top Gun' for a new generation.

Plot:

While in an international fair of exhibition of airplanes, a French Mirage 2000 of the last generation...

Plot Keywords:

Pilot | Plane | Betrayal | American Abroad | Aerial Combat

Cast

Benoît Magimel	...	Capitaine Antoine "Walk'n" Marchelli
Clovis Cornillac	...	Capitaine Sébastien "Fahrenheit" Vallois
Géraldine Pailhas	...	Maelle Coste
Alice Taglioni	...	Capitaine Estelle 'Pitbull' Kass
Philippe Torreton	...	Bertrand
Rey Reyes	...	Capitaine Leslie 'Stardust' Hedget
Peter Hudson	...	Général Buchanan
Jean-Baptiste Puech	...	Ipod
Christophe Reymond	...	Stan
Fiona Curzon	...	Mrs Redgrave
Jean-Michel Tinivelli	...	Colonel Farje
Frédéric van den Driessche	...	Général Hardouin
Eric Poulain	...	Capitaine Klébér
Pierre Poirot	...	De Séze
Jean-Yves Chilot	...	Houdon

Also Known As:

Sky Fighters (International: English title)

Runtime:

France:102 min | Argentina:102 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Netherlands:6 | Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | France:U | Portugal:M/12 | Canada:13+ | Hong Kong:I | Finland:K-7 | Canada:PG | Argentina:13 | South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

Djibouti

Company:

Mandarin Films

Trivia:

Working in cooperation with the French Air Force, director Gérard Pirès was able to get some of France's top gun pilots to do the aeronautic dogfights that were used in the film. Initially at the start of the shoot, the Air Force had some particular rules regarding the minimum distances the aircraft could be together or be above the ground, but by the end of principle photography, the daring pilots got permission to bend the normal safety rules, thus allowing them to do maneuvers normally never seen (or possible) outside of actual combat. By the final days of filming, the initial minimum distance the pilots could fly above the ground (500 feet) had dropped to a tiny 10 feet, and the distance between the planes in the air (a varying range, usually of several hundred feet) had been reduced to a minuscule 3 feet, thus allowing some amazing shots that could otherwise never have been pulled off.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When in the exercise center, the people using the weight equipment have the weight set to the absolute minimum.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Les chevaliers du ciel - Making-of promo (2005) (V)

Authentic sky drawings

Year 2005/2006. What is this? Rubbing my eyes, checking the cover of DVD - Chevaliers du ciel, Les - yes, it is a french movie. Like so many Hollywood cookings, much aerial stunts, breath-taking sky- punctures through clouds and blue pilots heaven. Seen so many fighter-movies, but this is a bullseye. Not for a story - many weak characters, but the real bold ones, the planes themselves.

Mirage was a good choice. Delta-wings gives extra speed and maneuverable feelings with most important fact that those planes were real ones. Real pilots and real surroundings. Only scene over Paris was partly manipulated.

Goodbye Top Gun and so many ridiculous computer aided movies. I won't search for goofs, it's not relevant.

Female-must-frame-in-the-film act was filled with nice-faced Alice Taglioni and the others, but the they did not have the charm of Mme Géraldine Pailhas, who has those faces to hold in memory.

French icon Benoît Magimel got more to keep going on.

My vote is mostly for authentic aviation.