The cinema will be shaken when one of the death-defying driver in Michael Mann’s new film Ferrari press on the gas. Then the V12 engines roar like demons made of metal, the force of their rustic screams pushes you into your armchair.
Michael Mann may not detonate an atomic bomb in Ferrari, but his biopic about Enzo Ferrari and the triumph and fate of a momentous car race is in no way inferior to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer in terms of the unleashing of cinematic forces. The great miracle of the film, however, is performed by leading actor Adam Driver (Star Wars), who plays a 20-year-old man who he does not resemble in the slightest – and he does so believably, appropriately vitally and without conspicuous old-age make-up.
Michael Mann is back after eight years
Ferrari is a decades-old dream project of Michael Mann. His last film, the hacker’s death row Blackhat (2015), starring Chris Hemsworth, was a financial failure, beating the critical acclaim of previous works including Action masterpieces like Heat and Collateral, was failed. So here is the story of Enzo Ferrari, who started out as a racing driver, rose to become a team owner and made fine sports cars. Based on the biography of Brock Yates, Mann and co-writer Troy Kennedy-Martin’s screenplay draws on an episode from the Italian’s long life that seeks to crystallize Ferrari’s essence.
Neon
Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari
Much like Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Ferrari (Adam Driver) is an organizational genius who twirls between PR, driver motivation and deals. In 1957, however, his luck seemed to run out. The company in Modena is on the brink of collapse. Investments from outside are needed. However, he only gets this when his four-wheeled steeds take the front places in the legendary Mille Miglia road race.
At the same time, Ferrari is struggling with the death of his son Dino and – another Oppenheimer parallel – a love triangle: here his marriage of convenience with Laura (Penélope Cruz), there his great love Lina (Shailene Woodley), with whom he is raising an illegitimate son.
Cars race through the idyll in grandiose racing scenes like forces of nature
Ferrari goes from private to business crisis and back again. The action is interrupted by opera arias or the roar of its engines before the thousand-mile race takes over for 20 minutes in the finale. 20 minutes of pure frenzy. Films like Rush, Le Mans 66 or recently Gran Turismo do their best to show the dynamics of a car race. Next to the violent power with which the mobile coffins in Michael Mann’s film roar through avenues, valleys and inner citiestheir cars appear like remote-controlled toys.
In Mann, the soundtrack trembles when Alfonso de Portago (Gabriel Leone) or Piero Taruffi (Patrick Dempsey as the majestic white hair) step on the brakes. You’re glued to the bodywork as the metal throws itself into the corner and they saw the steering wheel to bend the tires and centrifugal forces to their will.
Neon
Ferrari
These drivers take to the track without a seat belt or roll bar and Mann’s staging expresses how narrow the line between life and death isas soon as they take a seat in Ferrari’s machines.
At some point in this finale, two cars are chasing side-by-side across multiple corners. They fight for the few inches of space on a narrow mountain road. One car leads, then the other. Thanks to the camera work of Erik Messerschmidt, the film keeps pace. The racing scenes look extremely authentic, also because obvious CGI is only used in the event of accidents. In these minutes there is no longer any doubt that one one of the best action moments of the year has in front of him.
Beneath the warm surface, Ferrari is downright gloomy
Away from the slopes, Michael Mann tells a film about a great conductor who lets drivers dance at will on the abyss. In Collateral, Heat, Public Enemies, and others, he followed in the footsteps of men who come to themselves in danger. Ferrari drives others to take risks. So you should Don’t expect a 130-minute rush of speed.
Ferrari is a more leisurely work compared to Mann’s other work from the 2000s. The digital look on display has vanished and has been replaced by the warm inner worlds of a melodrama. The film explores how a man’s life is consumed by death. So he is again a classic “Michael Mann” and at the same time of a frightening darkness.
Mann’s works are full of great death scenes in which time stands still for a few seconds and life is seen escaping from people. Will be in his new film Bodies torn apart like machine parts and thrown around. For Adam Driver’s Enzo Ferrari, they’re just as easy to replace.
Ferrari currently has no German start date.