It is one of the most anticipated films. Ferrariby Michael Mann, with Adam Driver as Don Enzo Ferrari in his Il Commendatore days at the head of the Cavallino Rosso team, is everything one expects from the director of Fire against fire y Miami Division.
It is not a biopic, since even though it starts with black and white images with Driver driving, worked to seem like they were from that time, the action focuses on one year, 1957. It had been a decade since he and his wife, Laura (Penelope Cruz) had created the team, but times are not the same, Maserati breaks their records and what is about to go bankrupt is their company.
And neither Ferrariwhich competed for the Golden Lion in its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and did not win anything, nor did it receive any Oscar nominations (sound and editing were two possibilities) is a biopic that is decided only by business life, let’s say, of Don Enzo, but also includes the unrecognized son he had with his lover of more than a decade Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley, from Misanthropicby Damián Szifron), without Laura finding out.
That’s why it won’t be surprising that the first time we see Enzo and Laura together is one morning when he returns from his lover’s house and Laura shoots him with a bullet that hits the wall very close.
Enzo was familiar with death. His son Dino recently died, and the fatal accidents of his pilots – some in particular are shown in a tremendous way – are like stains that he cannot get rid of.
The only way Ferrari would save its company and not need to sell it to Fiat or Ford would be by achieving a victory in the Mille Miglia, Italy’s traditional endurance road race.
There are a couple of mentions of Juan Manuel Fangio, who in 1957 would be crowned world champion with Maserati.
With gray hair and a pot belly, Adam Driver returned to filming in Italy posing as a real-life character, as in The Gucci House (2021), by Ridley Scott, where he played Maurizio Gucci.
Passion, grief, ambition and pain
“When you drive you have to be focused on a single objective, everything else disappears,” says Don Enzo from the mouth of Adam Driver. And whoever conducts this “operatic melodrama”, as the director of Miami Division, it’s Michael Mann. A melodrama that talks about passion, loss, grief, love and ambition.
Ferrari It’s not like standing up from your seat and applauding. It entertains and despite the adrenaline moments of racing and time trials, characteristic of Michael Mann’s films, it does not go beyond being a correct film.
Drama. United States / United Kingdom / Italy / China, 2023. 130′, SAM 13 R. Of: Michael Mann. Con: Adam Driver, Shailene Woodley, Penélope Cruz, Patrick Dempsey, Giuseppe Festinese. Salas: Cinépolis Recoleta, Houssay y Pilar, Hoyts Abasto, Cinemark Palermo, Showcase Belgrano, Norcenter, Haedo and Quilmes.