Four-Eyes

#film #michaelMann #ferrari

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In Michael Mann's 'Ferrari' (2023), everyone wears fabulous glasses all of the time.

There is much doubling. Of Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver, 'Marriage Story') and his late older brother Alfredo, whose fates their mother says ought to have been switched; of this Alfredo and his nephew and namesake; of this first, also late, son of Enzo's, and his second, living son, Piero; of these boys' mothers, Enzo's wife Laura (Penélope Cruz, 'All About My Mother') and his mistress Lina; of Ferrari and his chief rival (who appropriately recognize each other as competitors, not sportsmen¹) in the Mille Miglia, Adolfo Orsi, boss of the Maserati team; and of two of Ferrari's ill-fated race car drivers.

Death lives among these resonances. And from among them develop the principal conflicts beside the marquee Mille Miglia.

Lina desires that Enzo officially recognize their son Piero ahead of his Confirmation. Laura seeks to discover her husband's secret. Cruz is not merely smoldering, but combustible. She announces the start of the picture proper by firing the gun given to her by her husband for her protection, into the wall beside his head, when he violates their agreement to always return from his 'whoring' before the maid serves breakfast. Appearances.

Later, having learned of Laura, and Piero, she realizes that she is perhaps the last soul in Modena to have apprehended her husband's en plein air liaison. Hers is the most affecting scene in 'Ferrari', when we see her, treading the street, coiled, tensile, carrying not only the weight of this knowledge but also that of all of her neighbors' unvoiced judgment. "Psychologically, not good."

¹One of the light gags in the picture is the way Ferrari encourages each of his drivers individually, and assures each he can win if only he performs.