Enzo on the Silver Screen

Michael Mann’s new biopic of Enzo Ferrari starring Adam Driver is set to make the legend burn even brighter

- By Jordan Riefe

In the year 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, desegregation began at a Little Rock, Arkansas high school, and some 4,300 miles away a 15-year-old musician named Paul McCartney met John Lennon and his band The Quarrymen—soon to be renamed The Beatles.

That same year, a tragic accident while Alfonso de Portago was racing in the iconic Mille Miglia at the wheel of a 4.0-litre Ferrari 335 S also had a major impact on the life of Enzo Ferrari, making it the most important milestone in his career to date, as documented in “Ferrari,” a new film from “Heat” and “The Insider” director Michael Mann.

“In this one year, 1957, many of the dynamic conflicts that are going on in his life all collide," Mann said at the premiere at last year's Venice Film Festival. In 1957, Ferrari's company faced financial headwinds while he coped with personal issues as well. "These conflicts are universal, it happens to all of us in all of our lives. Grief, love, passion, ambition, these are universal things and it's all compressed in this life of Enzo Ferrari in very melodramatic and operatic ways."

In the new film, Driver delivers one of his most nuanced performances yet as the 59-year-old legend at a crossroads. In order to sell more cars, his team must win races, not easy to do when your competition is Maserati. "The mindset of when we were racing cars in pre-production with Ferraris, it's the opposite of escapism, it's absolute focus on the moment that's happening right now. There's no room for daydreaming or losing focus or attention. It's dangerous. you'll crash," notes Driver.