Pardon me for being late to this one, but it turns out that Denis Villeneuve is a big fan of Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” calling it a “masterwork.” Not just that, he says it’s the best performance of Adam Driver’s career.
This is also a good time to mention that “Ferrari” is now available digitally. It pained me to see “Ferrari” doing so poorly at the box-office, but it was to be expected. The film was not at all meant for mainstream tastes, and rather a slow burn. In other words, it wasn’t “Ford v Ferrari.”
I thought “Ferrari” flirted with greatness. I might be in the minority here, but I liked it quite a bit. The performances, framing, staging and atmosphere were wonderfully realized. Also, the racing scenes were some of the best I’d ever seen.
Villeneuve is also correct about Driver’s performance as Enzo Ferrari — it’s up there with the very best work of his career. Penelope Cruz deserved an Oscar nomination for her volcanic performance as Laura Ferrari, Enzo’s wife.
As always, Mann is a master at creating atmosphere — you live and breathe the ‘50s, northern Italian milieu in “Ferrari”. There is so much texture to the film, visually and emotionally, that it all feels very lived-in. This is a film that could have easily come out of the ‘70s New Hollywood movement, shot in old-school grainy fashion, a la Gordon Willis, by Eric Messerschmidt.
“Ferrari” was a $100 million arthouse film, and almost nobody went to see it. The film only grossed $18 million domestically. It likely won’t make its money back and, sadly, had some heavy financial losses.
All of this doesn’t really matter to Mann because he finally made his life-long passion project and is still likely going to direct ‘Heat 2,’ which could very well just be an IP since the original film has become immensely popular on home video over the years. Warner Bros won’t even blink at greenlighting the sequel.