![\"Stephanie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9320c6e14d68665c25dd47a5975b19dc06c4094d.gif\")
Save<\/p>\nSave<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Cannes: When John Travolta heard that his debut film as director, an hour-long fairytale about a boy\u2019s first trip in a plane, was going to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival<\/a>, he says he \u201cwept like a baby\u201d.<\/p>\n A few months later, he would weep again after the first screening of Propeller One-Way Night Coach, where Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux joined him onstage to present him with an honorary Palme d\u2019Or. \u201cThis is beyond the Oscar,\u201d he said, choking back a sob as a thrilled audience rose to its feet. \u201cI can\u2019t believe this. This is the last thing I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n Two days later, he is explaining how his fascination with all things aviatic was intertwined with his familiarity with movies. Travolta\u2019s mother Ellen was a jobbing actress and drama coach.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was a little boy, we were immersed in show business. But show business equalled people going to do a Broadway tour, a nightclub act, a summer theatre job \u2013 I was always going to the airport,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cAnd every day, [there was] a photograph of Marilyn Monroe arriving somewhere, Elizabeth Taylor somewhere else, Grace Kelly in Monaco \u2013 there was always this romantic connection. That\u2019s when photographers were always at the airport.\u201d<\/p>\n When he was in movies himself, he would interview older stars about their memories of travel, what their favourite aircraft were and why. \u201cBecause that\u2019s what I was interested in. I never asked anyone about acting.\u201d<\/p>\n Propeller One-Way Night Coach was inspired by Travolta\u2019s first experience on an aeroplane as a child, flying from Washington to Los Angeles. Everything is seen through the very wide eyes of 10-year-old Jeff (Clark Shotwell). He is clearly blown away. Flying has obviously become more mundane over the decades, but the TWA red-eye was surely never quite this luxurious.<\/p>\n The martinis flow; dinner is served with silver-service pomp. When Jeff first sees the plane on the runway, Gershwin\u2019s Rhapsody in Blue gives voice to the small boy\u2019s naive rapture. When he is tired, he is popped to bed in a curtained hideaway while his mother \u2013 played by Travolta\u2019s real-life sister Kelly Eviston-Quinnett \u2013 chats up the richest bachelor on board.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re all composite characters,\u201d Travolta says, \u201cbut the boy is 100 per cent me. The mother is a composite of my sister, my mother and some of her girlfriends. The wild side was more the girlfriends.\u201d The circus performer who looms over in the night and announces he is \u201cthe 10-foot-tall man\u201d was real. He was allowed to visit the cockpit. \u201cEverything in it really happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Travolta, 72, currently owns five aeroplanes: a Boeing 737, the Canadian-built jet Global Express, a French Falcon 900, an Eclipse jet and the star of his movie, a red and white TWA propeller plane. \u201cI think it\u2019s the most beautiful plane ever built, other than maybe the Concorde.\u201d<\/p>\n As a qualified pilot, he has racked up over 10,000 hours\u2019 flying time. He flew himself and his daughter Ella Bleu Travolta, 26, from his home in Florida to Nice, an hour\u2019s drive from Cannes, in eight hours and 42 minutes. Ella Bleu plays a flight attendant in the film. Travolta arrived wearing the first in a succession of voluminous berets, redefining him as a French artist.<\/p>\n His favourite plane to fly, he says, was probably his Boeing 707, a Qantas jet. \u201cIt felt majestic. Big, four engines and I could be at the helm, like making a toy come to life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In 2017, the Boeing developed mechanical issues that meant it had to be retired from service. He has since donated it<\/a> to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) Museum in Sydney, shipping it to Australia in parts.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s already at the museum, being put together again,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The exchange has taken five years to achieve. The Boeing once belonged to Qantas; before shipping, Travolta \u2013 who has been a Qantas ambassador since 2002 \u2013 restored the airline\u2019s insignia. He is unsure when it will be exhibited. \u201cI think they want me there when it goes on display, so I\u2019m going to try to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n Propeller One-Way Night Coach won far more critical respect in Cannes than anyone expected. Wide-eyed wonder is not much in fashion now, but reviews praised it as \u201ccharmingly quirky and distinctively peculiar bedtime story\u201d<\/a> (The Guardian) and \u201cslim and winning\u201d<\/a> (Variety).<\/p>\n Related Article Travolta reads his own story for children about the flight, which becomes the film\u2019s narration, with disarming sincerity.<\/p>\n \u201cMy purpose was to remind people of when innocence meant hope,\u201d he says as I leave. \u201cWhat it felt like to have the glass half full.\u201d Those were the days.<\/p>\n Propeller One-Way Night Coach streams on Apple TV from May 29.<\/p>\n Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e3660d2369aa309ae13c747e34948bf03b3eaf6c.jpeg\")
John Travolta with the honorary Palme d\u2019Or he received after a screening of Propeller One-Way Night Coach at Cannes.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Still](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6dc7fd86de1e9c2b9d63685a88fe7ef56a3503d7.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Ella](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6fe753691b5b28115862afa3ea34f3ffb85898af.jpeg\")
Ella Bleu Travolta, Amanda McCants and Olga Hoffmann in Propeller One-Way Night Coach.<\/p>\n![\"Ella](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/94986cc75733000d2ae44311ddc880b6cf23f907.jpeg\")
Ella Bleu Travolta, pictured with her father John Travolta at Cannes, plays a flight attendant in the film.Getty Images for Apple TV<\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779194416_638_bfee14d1d213aa7fd0653658169dee35a000557a.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"Stephanie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778697564_375_9320c6e14d68665c25dd47a5975b19dc06c4094d.gif\")