In film biographies, most directors tend to make the same mistake. Try to tell the story of the character you are analyzing as if it were part of fiction, without mistakes or dark sides. Or, conversely, they exaggerate this last aspect as much as they can. Michael Mann leaves both of them Ferrari (2023) and makes a smart decision regarding its protagonist.
Enzo (unrecognizable Adam Driver) is a businessman hungry for success. He is also an absent and unfaithful husband. The father of a dead son and the visible head of a company that is dangerously on the brink of disaster. This, while the failure of wrong political decisions in Italy, suffering from the consequences of the Second World War, threatens the entire panorama.
Troy Kennedy Martin’s script manages to combine these elements into a series of images about the automotive world. According to history, what happens in the company happens the same way as in the life of the last heir to the family legacy. Thus, the scenes alternate with each other. The camera follows Enzo as he tries to bring the company back to stability, as well as his chaotic home life. Editing and editing become the perfect way to set the tone and pace of a film. In the first part, Enzo’s regrets result in the failures of a brand that is struggling to survive. So are his triumphs.
Ferrari
Michael Mann’s Ferrari attempts to simultaneously tell the story of the titular company’s crisis in the late 1950s and the story of Enzo (Adam Driver), the brand’s last heir. Sometimes the combination works. This makes the film a complex analysis of auto shop triumph. But when the script focuses too much on the melodrama of Enzo’s personal life, it loses all tension and becomes tiresome. Your biggest problem
The film takes place in the late 1950s. The film’s best moments are when it becomes pessimistic and practical. Enzo needs the company he runs to win the dangerous Mille Miglia race, stretching 1,000 miles across Italy.. At the same time, clarify your family life. The latter is in a precarious balance between his romance with Lardy (Shailene Woodley) and his turbulent marriage to Laura (Penelope Cruz, for good measure). In this difficult scenario, Enzo must win. The director emphasizes the fact that the tycoon is a former car driver, so all his decisions are almost always impulsive.. Which will sooner or later lead to disaster.
A difficult person in a risky field
Michael Mann uses his ability to lift people’s sorrows and turns Enzo Ferrari into a force of nature. Driver’s character wants everything in his life to be successful, and he will achieve this at any cost. The script is fast and direct as Enzo demands maximum productivity and success from his employees, something the company’s finances won’t immediately allow. But the plot loses its essence a little when it tries to talk about the private life of the last Ferrari from the same point of view.
There is an almost melodramatic undertone to the way the decisions Enzo must make between love and what his personal obligations entail are presented. That is, staying with Laura after they both lost the child. It’s clear that Mann is trying to explore his protagonist’s emotions, but loses his way as the story gets more complex. So much so that the film’s flawless tension breaks down in the second half. The director’s intention to explore what makes Enzo who he is is rushed and, especially, forced.
Things get better when the plot returns to racing and the world of cars. Eric Messerschmidt’s photographs accurately depict the Ferrari universe, highlighting the efficiency of the production and assembly system. That’s when the careful editing, from Enzo’s office to the assembly line, becomes the heart of the film. FerrariAccording to Michael Mann, this is in some ways a tribute to desperate efforts to preserve cultural memory. In other words, one of the last large Italian companies manage to survive in the unstable economy of post-war Europe.
Pros and cons of Ferrari
The idea works as long as the director manages to maintain a sense of urgency in his storytelling. The company is failing, and everything must be done to avoid it. The film takes on an epic tone that’s almost lyrically enhanced by Daniel Pemberton’s remarkable score. The drama becomes a vision of teamwork, and Rome glows like a twilight landscape.
Unfortunately, Mann spends too much time trying to make it clear that Enzo’s adultery is a problem that needs to be solved. The succession of scenes of quarrels, shouting and fighting distracts attention from the most interesting moment of the film. and dilutes the most interesting parts of it. With an ending that the director tries to make painful and elegant, disappointment is inevitable.
Source: Hiper Textual
