FERRARI by Michael Mann

What is the model of the watch?

 

Looks like Rolex Cosmograph Daytona White Gold 100 Years of Le Mans Edition 126529LN with cal 4132 movement that has a 24 hour recorder at 9 o'clock instead of the normal 12 hour recorder on other Daytonas.

 

Fake or real? Serial number?

 

Steve stop being so vague

 

As mentioned elsewhere I had to see it in French and the dubbing was very well done. No silly fake accents either.

Yes it is surprising that Mann did not choose more Italian actors but ultimately US box office sales rule.

Of course one could argue the graphic de Portago crash was unnecessary but well, it is a hugely pivotal moment for the story. Those WERE extremely dangerous times and that horrible accident brought that era to an end.

What I regret is that after the accident the film is rushed to it's ending. It would have deserved another twenty minutes to wrap it up more clearly. Maybe Mann ran out of time, energy or budget.

Still I rate it as one of the best ever in this genre, with the highest standards of acting and directing, never mind the misguided folks who expected days of thunder with pesto sauce.

 

Just been to see new Michael Mann Ferrari film on the UK and wanted to write what I said before reading what everyone else said.

The “mood” and Italian-ness of the film was great. Penelope Cruz as Laura Ferrari was spectacular, De Portago character by Gabriel Leone was good and I do like Patrick Dempsey and Adam Driver as actors.

Adam Driver played a good role, it was just too soft to be convincingly Enzo Ferrari. Needed to be more brutal. He just didn’t convince me.

There wasn’t enough car content for a car fan, and the rest of the story wasn’t strong enough to appeal to a wider audience. So will most people feel unfulfilled?

The film lacked depth and breadth - lots of
Issues raised in the story (eg finance, winning, family (PC aside) ), but glossed over in a undramatic way. The camera was always taking a narrow perspective on what you can see - needed to be broader.

I think this was a very atmospheric, so the mood and setting were beautiful, but I feel it lacked a strong enough purpose or story and the Ferrari cars weren’t central enough to the whole film.

I’m glad I saw it and I liked it.

 

there’s actual video from the 1957 race on YouTube. There were like 300 cars in the race with a bunch of classes.

 

Well put. I was a little underwhelmed. The first 30 minutes were quite boring. Too much was allocated toward Enzo’s personal life not enough on Ferrari the cars…

 

I liked the movie. Limitations are, as with Rush or Ford v. Ferrari, mostly due to the fact that I know something about the happenings depicted and can point at the mistakes. Was this about basketball or athletics, I probably wouldn't care, simply because I'm not familiar about the details. But there are some complaints, of course.
- Yellow Alfa Romeo Giulietta Berlina Laura Ferrari uses is a 1959 redesign - such details show to me that filmmakers simply don't care about the people who know a thing or two about the cars. I'm sure there are a few more cars that were a year or two too young, but this Alfa is prominent in the movie and it really bothers me.
- A lot of famous details and quotes are included, without consideration of the historic context. Ford connection was already mentioned but I also didn't like that Enzo is announcing Olivier Gendebien as the greatest sportscar driver in the world. It would make sense a few years later but not in 1957, when he just started his series of great wins.
- Mille Miglia is wrongly depicted, not only that ridiculous racing of same cars all the way but also after they mention that starting numbers mean starting time, the cars are pictured at the start in the wrong order.
- Jean Behra didn't participate in the race after big crash in practice - I really can't see why it had to be altered and spiced with stupid "hitch-hiking" part.
There are some other mistakes that are already pointed out in this thread. Also, I'm not sure if I imagined that during MM De Portago is sometimes shown with Ed Nelson and sometimes without a co-driver? But I don't feel that crash scenes are too graphic, actually I believe they had to be. Most of the cast are very good and even if Adam Driver doesn't resemble Enzo, I don't have objections on his work.

 

How can one possibly separate Mr. Ferrari’s personal life from the ‘car’ part of his life? They were his life.

 

My wife and I saw the movie this week, and both of us enjoyed it. We took two other friends who are not that familiar with the story, and they too enjoyed it. Granted, a large portion of the audience are Ferrari owners like us who know the details of Enzo's life, the history of the company, the cars, etc. And we can be very critical. I too noticed many of the inaccuracies but certainly my wife did not, and it prompted her ask me a number of questions about the MM, Ferrari racing history, Ferrari himself, etc. And that's one of the positives about the movie. I didn't mind the "slow" relationship parts. And as Piero Ferrari said, Mann took some creative license as all directors do to make the story interesting. Despite the inaccuracies, it exposes a number of viewers to the Ferrari story, and may get some of those less knowledgeable viewers to learn more about the cars, the man, their place in automotive history.
I have recommended it to several friends, some of whom know something about Ferrari, and some who don't..........but they will after seeing the movie.

I view the movie kind of like what I did on Enzo's 125th birthday. I got 12 people together at an Italian restaurant for dinner. I placed a framed photo of Enzo on the table and a birthday cake that had "Enzo Ferrari - 125" in icing. It got all of them to ask about Enzo and Ferrari.

Cheers.

 

My wife and I saw the movie yesterday in a luxo theater with well stuffed reclining seats, heated; however, neither of us went to sleep. At 80 years plus the sound was loud enough but, to our old ears with various frequency problems, the accented dialog was somewhat mumbly. I was glad to read that the actual cars, on the actual locations, were used to record the delightful sounds. The Ferrari sounds and Maserati sounds were distinctly different. We are anxious to see the movie when it is released on streaming so we can turn on the subtitles. The soapy parts will be an whole new movie and I can pause and explain the car stuff.

Concerning the picture - I am forever irritating my wife with my continual "gotcha" discussions in the movies (the jet trails in John Wayne westerns, etc). One that I caught in this movie was the "magic disappearing nose dent" on 531. It shows clearly in this scene but by the end of the race it is repaired! It was apparently hammered out and repainted during a pit stop?

My recommendation? If you are reading this, go see the movie. And if your wife, like mine, is more a Hallmark movie fan, you will look like a genius when you get home and answer all her questions!


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From the trailers that I have seen for this film, it seems like Michael Mann has taken a 1 year (1957) snap shot of Enzo Ferrari's life, and made a dramatised soap opera out of it, which doesn't interest me at all.

I don't need to see fictional scenes between Enzo Ferrari and his wife, or his mistress, that chances are, never really happened, and I seriously don't need to see Enzo Ferrari sex scenes! (really don't see the point of having those in the movie! )

It also doesn't strike me as a "must see at the cinema!" kind of film, in the way that "Top Gun : Maverick" was, or a film that I would be prepared to spend any money whatsoever on seeing it (be it going to the cinema, or buying/renting it on a streaming service)

If it's ever available on a free to view platform, then I would probably watch it once, but I suspect it would still niggle me, being a typical Hollywood dramatised version of reality.

 

It’s an anachronism. The Italians hadn’t perfected self-healing aluminum until almost 1960……

 

I saw the latest top gun idiocy and regret wasting two or three hours.
This slice of Modena history I will watch many times, with relish.
To each his own.

 

This movie was a waste of 2+ hours of my life. Adam Driver was miscast as Enzo and the entire story felt lifeless.

Ironically for a movie not about racing perhaps the only redeeming qualities of the movie were the racing scenes.

 

Easily no one came to see his social life to the extent the movie portrayed. Post 88 described it well. I’d rather see more on the production cars. How they were viewed in the US etc…

 

I posted this in Silver but since this thread has more participation, I'll post it here as well.

Just got back from a showing. Overall I give it a big thumbs up. Yes, Adam Driver doesn't look like Enzo, not even sure he portrayed Enzo's mannerisms or style of presentation. But the character dynamics and storyline were fascinating; the financial stresses, the relationship stresses, and yes the death of the drivers.

I found the racing cinematography to be better than previous racing films, better than Ford v. Ferrari, better than Rush. For sure the sound of the engines was the best. Yes the climatic crash scene was gruesome but I didn't think overly so. I didn't find it to be Hollywood sensationalism but just the opposite, a hard presentation of what really happened. Gut wrenching.

Sure there are details that aren't 100% accurate but I can look past those if the overall story arc and presentation are accurate, which I believe them to be. Adam Driver was good, Penelope Cruz was great. I hope she gets a supporting actress nomination for an Oscar. I would be happy to see her win.

So I recommend this movie to everyone. If you go and don't agree with my review, so be it.

Forza Ferrari!

 

Regarding box office revenue, I'm afraid this might be a money loser. That has no bearing on what I feel about the movie but when a good movie doesn't do well at the box office, it does have negative downstream effects. The actors and crew will do ok but still.

I wonder if the marketing spend was smaller than it should have been. I was talking to a friend about it, someone who is not into cars, and he didn't even know it existed.

 

One of the biggest problems that this film was always going to face, is that it's a very niche subject.

Outside of "the car World", the vast majority of the people have little interest in Ferrari, and even less interest in Enzo Ferrari's personal life (even those in "the car World" have little interest Enzo Ferrari's personal life with his wife and mistress, and even less interest in dramatised situations that may not even have taken place as depicted)

Added to that, a lot of "Lamborghini people", "Porsche people", "Lotus people" , "Corvette people", "muscle car people", "Japanese performance car people", "rally car people", and other "non-Ferrari car people", are not going to rush to the cinema to see a movie about anything Ferrari, because it's just of no interest to them.

I'm not convinced spending even more Millions more on advertising would have generated an massive amount of additional interest in the film, especially amongst non-car people.

It's a bit like making a dramatised movie about Albert Einstein - You could spend 100 Million on advertising, and you could spend 500 Million on advertising - Your audience size is always going to be limited (to a degree) by the fact it's such a niche subject (How many people here would really be eager to see a dramatised movie about Einstein? )

 

"It's a bit like making a dramatised movie about Albert Einstein - You could spend 100 Million on advertising, and you could spend 500 Million on advertising - Your audience size is always going to be limited (to a degree) by the fact it's such a niche subject (How many people here would really be eager to see a dramatised movie about Einstein? )"

Yes, you do have a relative theory there.

 

True. However replace Albert Einstein with Robert Oppenheimer and see how your theory works out. I think Oppenheimer did rather well. And I imagine their marketing spend wasn't small.

But I get your point, Enzo Ferrari might be too niche a subject for a wide appeal. Sometimes great movies don't have great financial success.

 

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Not sure I'd call Ferrari a great movie. Good, yes, great.......