‘Ferrari’ premiere in high gear at Venice film fest
LIDO, Venice, Italy — “Ferrari,” Michael Mann’s lavishly exuberant look at Italian racing car legend Enzo Ferrari’s life, loves and tragedies, brought red carpet dazzle to its Venice Film Festival world premiere Thursday with Adam Driver and Patrick Dempsey there in person.
Both actors were cleared to promote this biopic during the current SAG-AFTRA actors strike.
Set in 1957 at a critical time for the luxury carmaker, “Ferrari” sees Driver’s Enzo at several critical points. His long partnership with his wife and business manager (Penelope Cruz) has capsized with their only son’s death a year earlier. As bankruptcy worries mount, Ferrari cars need to win races — to stay in business. And then there’s Enzo’s other family — his long-term mistress (Shailene Woodley) and their now 10-yearold son.
“His story is so profoundly human and operatic,” Mann, 80, said at an afternoon press conference, “the deeper you dive the more universal it becomes. His life resonated with me. It’s melodramatic and profound.”
Dempsey, in real life a racecar enthusiast, said, “I was very familiar with the story. This period of motor sport has always been fascinating to me. Certainly, it’s the most romantic and most deadly era.
“I went after this. I just wanted to be part of it in any capacity. I was working in London at the time and just finished watching last year’s Grand Prix which Ferrari won. So I sent a message to Michael, I asked to have a meeting. About a month later I got the call” to play race car driver Piero Taruffi, a member of the Ferrari team.
“What was interesting to me is the mindset of a racer,” Driver noted. “When we were driving cars in preproduction you become painfully aware it’s the opposite of escapism. It’s absolute focus on what’s happening right now. You don’t lose focus — because it’s dangerous. You’ll crash.
“Enzo,” he added, “built a way of coping with death, not just his son but his teammates as well.”
“Ferrari” opens in US theaters this December.
‘Dogman’
France’s Luc Besson has been absent for six years but he’s back as writer-director with a truly original English language fable “Dogman” which also world premiered Thursday night.
It’s tour de force for Caleb Landry Jones as an abused boy who has survived into adulthood and whose only friends have always been dogs.
“I’ve been writing since I’m 16 years old,” Besson, 55, said prior to the premiere. “It’s my way to escape this world. I wondered, What kind of life can this boy have when your parent puts you in a cage? I just tried to imagine his life.”