Movie director Michael Mann is up and down, but he is so good at his best (“Collateral” for example) that film fans find it difficult to let his movies come and go unseen. In the case of his new offering, “Ferrari,” Mann has Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz to rely on, and they are pretty dependable stars.
He also has his odd ability to use camera angles and out-the-window shots to produce tones, and without seeming to waste time. Motor racing enthusiasts will also think he has a great cinematic event here in the wreck at the end of the Mile Miglia race of 1957. This, the last legal race on Italian public roads, gives Mann a solid occasion for this film about the man behind the Ferrari brand.
By 2024, though, film fans have lost all enthusiasm for “based on a true story” plots. Historical incidents have formed the basis of too many dull flicks.
In “Ferrari,” Mann doesn’t do much to set up the crash at the climax. In fact, he hasn’t done much to boost our enthusiasm for his film at all.
He has gone away from motor building and racing, at regular intervals, into Enzo Ferrari’s private life. But the scenes from his person life don’t seem to have much to do with the story. If there is a story in this film.
Usually a story solves a problem. Rocky wants to prove he is not just another bum from the neighborhood. The Indiana cagers want to show that they play basketball on a level with the best teams from bigger schools.
In “Ferrari,” the story might be about Enzo getting away from his embittered wife. It might be about his defeating Team Maserati. It might be about his attempt to keep his factory’s doors open. Any of these. Not all.
We can usually pick out a central complication by seeing what problem gets introduced earliest in the entertainment.
None of these story motives comes up alone in the first reel or the second, or anywhere in the film.
The other way we can tell what a plot is about is by seeing what problem is resolved at the movie’s climax. But it doesn’t feel as if any one on my list is settled either by the wreck (which is very famous) or by the result of the race.
While he isn’t telling a story, though, Mann is giving us visual treats and he is revisiting late 50’s Italian style. The shades.
The car bodies. The suits. The marital conventions. And even, in one scene, the influence of the church on daily life.
These were all influential in the west, prefiguring the British style explosion of the 1960s. Not so much about food, though. Italian food is the great abiding monument to the Italiano craze of sixty some years ago. I don’t know whether pizza changed Wichita more, or Wichita changed pizza.
There are engineering works scenes to see in the Air Cap. We see similar ones in the movie’s Ferrari factory and garage. It may be that “Ferrari’s” few looks at the motor works are what make the film seem real—not fictitious. No fiction here. Heck, the movie doesn’t even tell a story.
