Michael Mann’s long-awaited film on the life of Enzo Ferrari was presented at the 80th Venice Film Festival and is set to premiere in Italian theatres from November 30.
Starring Adam Driver alongside Penelope Cruz, the film portrays the human side of the Modena-born entrepreneur and the events of 1957 in particular, a year in which Ferrari was faced with a major personal and professional crisis.
“Ferrari” is set and filmed in Italy’s Motor Valley, giving the story an authentic feel. The story is about a man who elevated the world of car racing but was not spared the inherent suffering and turmoil of human existence, giving film-goers a more real, less glossy representation.
And Modena and Maranello were the only places that could serve as the backdrop for the story. This is where Enzo Ferrari was born and built his fortune. This is where his memory still lives on.
A realistic setting
In honour of the man Enzo Ferrari was and his friendship with Vittorio Stanguellini and later, with Francesco Stanguellini, the Stanguellini Museum provided Michael Mann with furnishings and equipment for the Ferrari workshop and body shop set.
Work benches, drawing tables, welders, pliers, screwdrivers and other tools that were once in use in automaker factories and body shops of the past: the community of Modena and the Stanguellini Museum made a great contribution to the film’s realistic portrayal.
“We’re happy to have participated, albeit in a small way, in this film about one of our country’s most influential men and with whom my family shared a passion for racing”, said Francesca Stanguellini. “The museum’s equipment enabled the director to create a more authentic setting that really revealed what our work was about and the history of our local area”.
In fact, the Modena area is the real custodian of the legacy of Enzo Ferrari and the other personalities from the auto world that made this corner of Italy a success. And we mean “area” not merely in the geographic sense but as a social and cultural environment.
We can’t wait for the film to come out to discover Mann’s interpretation of Enzo Ferrari —the man and the personality— and of Emilia.
