Ferrari: Myth & Mann

One of our greatest American auteurs, Michael Mann, has returned to his specialty of examining romantic partnerships and damaged men through a lens of hi-octane action as he takes on the confining world of 1950s auto racing in Ferrari.

Ferrari is not a story about the creation of the iconic car, but a focus on the most tumultuous years for its founder, Enzo Ferrari, both personally and professionally. At the age of 60 and on the age of bankruptcy, Ferrari is facing new competition in an industry he once ruled, while sorting out his personal affairs between two women: his wife Laura and Lina. These relationships are only more complicated by the fact that he and Laura run Ferrari together as partners and have experienced the loss of their son. Enzo has checked out of his grief through Lina with whom he has a younger son that he has kept from the world until he needs to choose a last name for the boy to start school. Enzo finds himself at an inflection point in life, unable to escape the tragedies except when he sneaks away to the beautiful farmhouse Lina resides in.

To escape bankruptcy, Enzo is pressured to find an investor to partner with another company. Enzo’s expenses pile on due to his obsession with building the perfect racing car instead of building a plethora of consumer cars to offset his costs. In order to go this route he must convince Laura to give him her shares and win the Mille Miglia to bring back attraction toward Ferrari. The pressure is on Enzo as time ticks for both his legacy and marital affairs.

Ferrari is a character-driven story informing everything around it through the spirit of Enzo. Mann is the perfect filmmaker to helm the internal conflict of male identity and vulnerabilities placed opposite of women. Ferrari is not just a retelling of a historical event, but a passion project for Mann full of gripping energy and beauty that places us in the coveted seat of the deadly sport. Mann never tries to empathize with Enzo or redeem him, he presents him as he is through all the fragility and feats while leaving the story open in the end.

Mann separates the man from the name to uncover the machinery that is required to keep him going during this grief-stricken period of his life. Underneath the Ferrari facade, he is a man chasing professional perfection to mask the messiness of his domestic life. Mann dives into the tragedy of Enzo’s son’s passing that projects him into this hyper-fixation with fixing his life. It is evident how it will always linger around haunting Enzo in every inch of life specifically his relationships. Unlike so many biopics, Mann isn’t afraid to dive deep into his subject and examine his iconography in a way that doesn’t justify him. Mann is honest in his portrayal of the racing figure and with the help of leading actor Adam Driver, he creates a captivating tragedy that doesn’t need to rely on its action but is enhanced. Mann breaks down the myth of Ferrari by showing a flawed, egotistical human at the helm that even though he was brilliant, not even he could race past his errors.

From the barren offices to the monochromatic suits, Enzo is cold and moves as a ghost assessing his emotions like he’s fixing a car engine. He keeps a distance from sentimentality and nostalgia in order to keep going as shown by his sparse and emptiness. His drivers are gears in the Ferrari machine, changing them out until they operate perfectly. Lina and Laura represent the emotional tug between business, grief, and ego as he compartmentalizes each to avoid a major crash.

Mirroring the craftsmanship of Ferrari, Mann assembles a well-oiled machine to replicate the essence and authenticity of 1950s Modena. The painting approach by Erik Messerschimdt juxtaposes the hi-octane aggressive nature of the game-changing racing sequences. Messerschmidt signature fluidity of light coupled with Maria Djurkovic’s textured color palette set up the lived-in complicated world of Enzo Ferrari. The racing scenes alone will go down as some of the best sequences in cinema. Opting out of sexualizing the cars, Messerschimdt highlights the deep focus of racing with the sickening speed matched with warping skies. Zipping through the mountains forgoing closeup POVs in favor of positioning the audience alongside the driver’s seat, an immersive experience full of oil and whiplash is crafted as a choreographed battle to the finish line. There is always a reminder of the small moment it takes to reach death in racing and what these men are actually signing up for.

There is never an excitement to the upcoming race, a sense of unease as to whether Ferrari will come out on top with the impending doom of potential lives lost. Red is held captive as a color until it bleeds through the lush greenery of Italy to capitalize on the holy sacrament of racing. Mann and his team approach Ferrari as a religious experience full of dread that constrains the viewer into the fate of its characters. He never backs away from the horrors with a crash scene that will hit you hard even if you were already aware of the gruesome event. Only when Enzo takes a moment to breathe are we allowed to do as well? Their work speaks to his two distinct worlds of dark and oppressive to light and airy. We are able to sense Enzo’s emotions through his environments simply by visuals instead of speech. We feel the remains of a marriage in the dreary home in the city he shares with Laura mixed with the airy new beginning farmhouse with Lina.

Adam Driver who continues to remind us why he is one of the best actors of his generation makes a career-defining turn as Enzo Ferrari. He maintains a tall posture while hinting at the internalized grief within his character’s psyche. Driver searches for the heart of his character with no concern for presenting an impression of the Italian man. Michael Mann masterfully brings masculine men to the screen but tears down the stereotypes of men to paint all the vulnerabilities behind their identity. Enzo represents the repressive nature of man fighting to preserve their ego wearing his tenderness and sorrow behind his dark shades. He battles the gendered expectations of man that ultimately place him into a prison of his own creation. It speaks to how well Driver and Mann work together to add nuance to Ferrari. Penelope Cruz elevates the grief-stricken wife, by adding depth of intensity opposite the ego of Enzo. In her position, she knows Enzo will always return to her because of the tragedy that cements them. While the race is the main focus, at the center of this tale it is a story of marriage that would not be evident without Cruz wearing the scars of their history. Both play to the idea of marriage in 1950’s Modena to understand these characters from their social class to set expectations.

Michael Mann’s Ferrari operates like its namesake, from its gorgeous Caravaggio exterior to a messy, ferocious emotional core underneath the glossy surface in a poetic examination of masculinity and death.