Ferrari is the latest biography on the life of Enzo Ferrari, the creator of the iconic car manufacturing company. With the movie being a thriller/sports movie, the director Michael Mann took extra care to avoid certain biography tropes.
Talking about the life and death of Enzo Ferrari, Mann talked about how he chose to depict a particular time period, instead of his whole life. Stating that this wasn’t a TV series on History Channel, Mann stood firm with his decision.
Michael Mann’s Ferrari Showed A Single Summer of ’57
With the 2023 movie being based on the life of Enzo Ferrari, director Michael Mann made a bold decision to only show the summer of 1957 in the movie, when Ferrari was at its worst. With bankruptcy creeping in, the car manufacturer decides to wager it all in a 1000-mile race across Italy.
In an interview with IndieWire, Michael Mann talked about how he didn’t want to just show the life and death of Enzo Ferrari. Stating that it would have been one of the most overused tropes in biographical films, Mann revealed that he didn’t want to make the film boring.
“I wouldn’t have been interested in some lengthy biopic. Those are documentaries that belong on the History Channel. They never work. And within this four-month period, all the dynamic forces of Enzo’s life are compacted and in collision.”
Having quite a significant experience in working on biographical films, Michael Mann has directed The Insider, Ali, and, Public Enemies which follow a similar trope of starting the story from the middle and showcasing a particular event (there are some exceptions). Other notable directors like Steven Spielberg, Mel Gibson, and Martin Scorsese agree with the style.
As is often seen in their biographical movies, the films start from the middle ground. In movies like Schindler’s List, Braveheart, and, The Irishman, it is common to see the directors starting the films with their main characters, and the story is revealed as the movie progresses.
Michael Mann Wanted To Create A Sense of Intense Compression!
With the entire summer of 1957 being compressed into a runtime of 2 hours and 11 minutes, Michael Mann revealed that it was really tough to create that sense of compression within the movie. Stating that he wished the movie would feel tight and adrenaline-inducing, Mann wanted to make the neighborhood as real as possible.
“[W]ithin this four-month period, all the dynamic forces of Enzo’s life are compacted and in collision. Everything in the movie that happened, happened within 500 meters of everything else. […] The barber’s shop is round the corner; the hotel Enzo went to for drinks is opposite; the opera is next door. And he never wanted to go anyplace else.”
He further continued,
“He even stopped going to races and never left the country. So, you have to try and build that sense of intense compression into one neighborhood, making the location that the action is going to take place in as believable and real as possible.”
Well, it seems that Mann did create an intense atmosphere in his movie as Ferrari received a solid rating of 6.7/10 on IMDB and 71% on Rotten Tomatoes. Starring Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz in the lead roles, the movie is currently screening in select theaters around the world.
