Hollywood has given the big-screen treatment to legendary Ferrari moments in recent years — with box office success.
After Rush, which depicted the Lauda vs Hunt battle of 1976, came Le Mans ’66 and Ford’s challenge to the Scuderia’s dominance. Now the spotlight has been turned on the man who started it all.
Directed by Michael Mann and featuring Adam Driver, Ferrari follows the life story of Enzo Ferrari, centred around the tragic running of the 1957 Mille Miglia; won by the Ferrari legend Piero Taruffi, but indelibly scarred by the deaths of nine spectators after a crash involving Alfonso’ De Portago’s Ferrari, which also killed him and navigator Edmund Nelson.
The trailer, set against the blare of V12 engines and with barely any dialogue, has barely any dialogue, sets the tone for what promises to be a dramatic motion picture.
And if expectations weren’t high enough, the premiere showing in Venice got a seven minute standing ovation…
Set in the summer of 1957, Ferrari is in a period of crisis. Following the death of his son Dino, Enzo and his wife Laura are trapped in a volatile marriage, not helped by the presence of his mistress Lina Lardi. At the same time, they are trying to save their glorious car company from extinction as bankruptcy looms. While its F1 ventures remain highly successful, winning the title with Juan Manuel Fangio in ’56, Ferrari faces a tougher challenge in the World Sportscar Championship of ’57, the third round of which is the Mille Miglia.
Piero Taruffi, Peter Collins, Wolfgang von Trips and Alfonso de Portago are chosen to race for the Scuderia, matched up against the mighty Maseratis of Stirling Moss, Jean Behra, Hans Herrmann and Giorgio Scarlatti.
It was to be the final competitive running of the race in this format, over mostly country roads with little safety provisions: Ferrari’s triumph so overshadowed by the tragedy that the race was banned within days.
Adam Driver (left), Michael Mann (centre) and Patrick Dempsey (right) at Venice film festival ahead of ‘Ferrari’ premiere
Getty Images
The film is due to be released on November 30, 2023, following August’s the world premiere in Venice. Ferrari will exclusively be playing in cinemas upon its release.
After his performance as fashion tycoon Maurizio Gucci in House of Gucci, Adam Driver was selected to play Il Commendatore‘, replacing Christian Bale who dropped out due to health concerns.
Driver partners Penélope Cruz, playing Ferrari’s wife Laura, who helped build the Ferrari empire into what it is today. Patrick Dempsey, Jack O’Connell and Gabriel Leone will also appear as the driving trio of Piero Taruffi, Peter Collins and Alfonso de Portago.
There are roles too for genuine racing drivers. Ben Collins, best-known for his stint at The Stig on Top Gear, depicts Stirling Moss, while sports car racer Marino Franchitti is cast as the unfortunate Eugenio Castellotti.
Shailene Woodley |
Jack O’Connell |
Marino Franchitti |
A staple of Italian motor sport, the Mille Miglia was once in a league of its own when it came to endurance racing. First established in 1927, grand tourers and star drivers from Mercedes, Porsche, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari would race for 1000 miles over two days on mostly unprotected country roads.
Described by Enzo as “the most beautiful race in the world”, it was a crowning moment for many champions and their navigators, including Alberto Ascari and Stirling Moss who sat beside Motor Sport’s very own Denis Jenkinson in 1955.
The original route saw drivers race from Brescia to Rome and back again, in a figure of eight across Italy. Later versions took the form of a clockwise lap around the country, with Brescia still hosting the start and finish.
The event drew more than five million spectators over its two-day running, adding to the risk of the perilously dangerous race. Over its 30-year history, more than 50 people died in crashes related to the Mille Miglia —often on the fastest early sections between Brescia and Ravenna — a 200-mile stretch of road that challenged even the very best drivers.
After the banning of the race in 1957, the Mille Miglia returned as a rally for three years, before it ceased altogether. It was finally revived in 1977 as an historic regularity rally to bring the spectacle of the historic event back, while reducing the danger.
Although there are still more than two months to go before its release in cinemas, the first Ferrari reviews are in. You’ll also be able to read Motor Sport’s verdict shortly.
Its current score on Rotten Tomatoes is 65%, which places the film in the average band of releases, but there is almost universal praise for the high-paced, powerful and detailed racing sequences, in particular the scenes of monumental crashes.
The Daily Telegraph awarded it four stars out of five, praising the racing scenes for being “as electrifyingly, wind-whippingly real as anything in the genre’s history”, and describing Driver as slipping “naturally into hand-clasping patrician mode”.
Rolling Stone is also wowed by the “spectacular” racing. “With sports car after sports car revving across fields, around mountains, and down city streets lined with onlookers, you’ll wonder how they pulled it off,” it says, also describing a crash that was so “extraordinarily visceral and violent” that it left the theatre in stunned silence. It’s most lavish praise, however, was reserved for Penelope Cruz as Enzo’s downtrodden wife Laura. “An Oscar nod is all but guaranteed,” it says.
Cruz and the crash scenes are favoured by The Guardian, but it only awards three stars out of five, saying: “The film itself does not find a way to absorb the pointless culpable horror of it all, relapsing into a stolid, almost joyless determination.”
It’s a similar verdict from The Times, only with just a two out of five star rating. after criticising the slow plot: “Enzo and co are left treading water, or spinning their wheels, as Laura and Lina vie for their man’s affections… Driver is unable to bring anything unexpected or challenging to this template.”
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