Related Post
Many have heard about the very famous Ferrari cars, but only a few know the story of the psychological, familial and economic struggles that the creator of these cars went through, which immortalized his name in a way that many blue-bloods and royal families wished for.
The film “Ferrari”, directed by Michael Mann, deals with the story of a very limited period in the life of the racer and car manufacturer “Enzo Ferrari”, but it is the real key to reading the biography of this man, who was played on screen by “Adam Driver” and co-starring “Penelope Cruz” and “Shailene Woody.”
“Ferrari” premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Lion, and although it was originally intended for release on Showtime and Paramount Plus, the film received cinematic release around the world.
Character building and event selection
Biographical films have developed clearly in recent years. Instead of works that tell the story of the heroes’ lives from their birth to their death, these films have focused on a specific moment in the life of the main character, which we can call a “central moment” through which his character can be read before and after.
This condensation allows the filmmakers an in-depth view of the character, rather than the quick, book-like summaries that try to tell everything in brief and are forced to leave out small details along the way through their endeavor, so the final product becomes a dull copy of a great work.
The real hero of “Ferrari” is the screenplay written by Troy Kennedy Martin, who chose to start in 1957, a year after Enzo Ferrari's eldest son died at the age of 24 from a terminal illness.
The writer opens the film by clarifying the psychological, mental, economic and social condition of the hero. He is a father grieving over the loss of his son, a traitorous husband to a secret lover, with whom he has another son who is reluctant to give him his name for fear of his first wife, who owns half of his company, and the owner of a car empire that is about to collapse because of his focus on cars. Racing, not building cars to sell, so he has to find a new partner and convince his wife to negotiate.
In its first minutes, the film depicted a general image of Enzo Ferrari, a man obsessed with car racing to the point that all the previous factors in his personality seemed as if they were a sideline of his true passion, for which he lost many friends who were killed by the cars he built with his own hands.
On the other hand, the screenplay is flawed in its focus on the three main characters, “Enzo,” “Laura,” the wife, and “Lina,” the mistress, and its neglect of the rest of the characters, so that they appear in the end as if they were abbreviations of human beings who should appear on the screen, more than individuals who lived, died, and influenced the lives of “ Enzo Ferrari.
In the second act, the film turns into a traditional conflict between the parties of the triangle of wife, husband, and mistress, but it is saved by the third act, which leaves this relationship aside and focuses on what the film makers considered to be the most decisive moment in the history of Enzo Ferrari, which is the events of the Mille Miglia race. His victory represents the only trump card that Enzo was able to negotiate to save his company, but although one of his cars actually won, the race ended in a bloody manner that led to the cancellation of the event that lasted from 1927 to 1957.
Penelope Cruz is the best
The advertising poster for the film bears the name “Ferrari” and a picture of the actor “Adam Driver” as the hero of the work, but the best thing about it was the performance of the Spanish actress “Penelope Cruz,” who plays a complex role of a woman who fluctuates, all the time, between grief over the death of her young son and anger. From her husband because he could not save the son, and because of his constant betrayal for more than a decade.
It is impossible to predict what Penelope Cruz will present from one scene to the next, as she moves between the layers of the character with ease, smoothness, and great mastery, enlivening every shot she appears in, while Adam Driver's performance is absent behind a thick cloud of the artificial Italian accent of the dialogue written in English.
For the second time, Driver presents a real character who speaks with the same accent, and was the first in the movie “House of Gucci” and “Maurizio Gucci.”
The choice of language and dialect is certainly a mistake that does not fall on him, but it actually restricts his acting performance and makes him lose credibility, which raises a necessary question about the reason why American cinema uses American actors in making films whose events revolve around people from other countries, while they can be dispensed with actors from other countries. This country; Especially since the film was originally intended to be shown on the screens of platforms that provide dubbing and translation services very easily.
It seems that filmmakers rely mainly on star power to market their work, or they think that a film in a language other than English will have difficulty being distributed or received by American viewers.
Photography comes as the best element in the movie “Ferrari” after the performance of “Penelope Cruz”, as the photography conveys the different character of the three basic sections in the life of “Enzo Ferrari”, and the photography style varies in the racing car experience scenes, or the main race itself, with the camera sometimes being placed. Inside the car itself, to convey to the viewer the speed and danger, and the best scene in the film is the car accident near the end, which represents the climax of the film in dramatic terms.
At the beginning of the film in Enzo and Laura's house, which is traditional and represents a restriction in his life, Enzo is filmed in close-up shots, making it appear as if he is trapped in the many pieces of furniture around him, with light and dark lighting used in these scenes, while we see The opposite is true in Lina's house, which was photographed using sunlight, and in large spaces, reflecting Enzo's feeling of comfort in the company of this woman.
The names “Michael Mann”, “Adam Driver” and “Penelope Cruz” are considered a masterpiece, so the hopes of critics and viewers rose towards the film, which in the end resulted in good work, but it is flawed by many problems that make it a weak contender in the current awards season.
