''Ferrari'' is a 2003 Italian

biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudra ...

based on the book by

Enzo Biagi Enzo Biagi (; 9 August 1920 – 6 November 2007) was an Italian journalist, writer and former partisan. Life and career Biagi was born in Lizzano in Belvedere, and began his career as a journalist in Bologna. In 1952, he worked on the screenpla ...

. It depicts

Enzo Ferrari Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari (; 20 February 1898 – 14 August 1988) was an Italians, Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari ...

's rise from a successful race driver to one of the most famous

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

s of all time. Being interviewed by a fictitious, intrusive young

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

he recalls his setbacks and personal losses. He also expresses his regrets about race drivers who met with an

accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researcher ...

. The film finishes with a dedication by

Piero Ferrari Piero Lardi Ferrari (born 22 May 1945Rancati, p. 107) is an Italian billionaire businessman and sport personality. He is the second and only living son of Enzo Ferrari, and a 10.23% owner of the Ferrari automotive company, of which he is the vic ...

: "In loving memory of my father and of my brother Dino". Due to its success the original TV

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

was edited for cinema.

Plot

When he is only ten years old, Enzo Ferrari runs to the next village only to watch a car race. Now the direction for his life is set. He starts immediately working on vehicles and as soon as he is old enough to drive a real car, he becomes a race car driver. Soon the young man shows ambitions in finding a racing team. He offers his services to

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

but the team managers turn him down. Yet

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." ...

hires Ferrari and promotes him to team manager. With gusto Ferrari takes his family to the races. His wife objects to the noise and considers this environment inappropriate for little Dino, but Enzo's

enthusiasm In modern usage, enthusiasm refers to intense enjoyment, interest, or approval expressed by a person. The term is related to playfulness, inventiveness, optimism and high energy. The word was originally used to refer to a person possessed by Go ...

knows no restraint. He is determined to raise him as his successor. Ferrari's reputation grows and enables him to create his own company,

Scuderia Ferrari Scuderia Ferrari Società per Azioni, S.p.A. () is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "The Prancing Horse", in refere ...

. When he presents his employees (including

Giuseppe Campari Giuseppe Campari (8 June 1892 – 10 September 1933) was an Italian opera singer and Grand Prix motor racing driver. Racing career Born near the city of Lodi southwest of Milan, as a teenager he went to work for the Alfa Romeo automobile compa ...

and

Tazio Nuvolari Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari (; 16 November 1892 – 11 August 1953) was an Italian racing driver. He first raced motorcycles and then concentrated on sports cars and single-seaters. A resident of Mantua, he was known as 'Il Mantovano Volante' (Th ...

) to the press, he explains that enthusiasm can be contagious. But when German troops come to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, Ferrari is accused of building weapons for the Italian resistance. Although one of the officers is a former racing driver and a fan of Ferrari and tries to protect him, Ferrari must hide. After the war Enzo Ferrari rebuilds his destroyed factory, and begins pushing himself to his limits. Once he is back in business and has recovered from exhaustion, he finds out that Dino suffers with an especially severe form of

muscular dystrophy Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a genetically and clinically heterogeneous group of rare neuromuscular diseases that cause progressive weakness and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. The disorders differ as to which muscles are primarily affe ...

. Enzo regrets not having spent more time with him, a thought which will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Cast

Sergio Castellitto Sergio Castellitto (born 18 August 1953) is an Italian actor, film director, and screenwriter. Biography Sergio Castellitto was born in Rome in 1953, to parents from Molise and Abruzzo, Southern Italy. After graduating from the Silvio D'Amico Na ...

as Enzo Ferrari *

Ed Stoppard Edmund Stoppard (born 16 September 1974) is an English actor. He is the son of playwright Tom Stoppard and doctor Miriam, Lady Hogg. Life Stoppard was born on 16 September 1974 in London, England, the son of playwright Tom Stoppard and Miriam ...

as Ferrari's alter ego * Cristina Moglia as Laura Garello *

Jessica Brooks Jessica Kate Brooks (born 28 May 1981 in Ealing, London) is an English actress. In musical theatre, she is a soprano. She has appeared in various BBC television productions, including ''Murder Rooms: The Kingdom of Bones'', and featured in epi ...

as Lina Lardi *

Matthew Bose Mathew Bose (born 3 July 1977) is a British actor. He is best known for his role as Paul Lambert in the soap opera ''Emmerdale'' from 2004 to 2010 and again in 2015. Life and career Bose was born 3 July 1977 in South East London. He has an ol ...

as Dino *

Pierfrancesco Favino Pierfrancesco Favino (; August 24, 1969) is an Italian actor, voice actor and producer. He has appeared in more than fifty European and American movies and television series since the early 1990s, including '' The Prince of Homburg'' (1997), '' T ...

as Filippo *

Jonathan Bailey Jonathan Stuart Bailey (born 25 April 1988) is an English actor. Known for his comedic, dramatic, and musical roles on stage and screen, he is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award and a nomination for a Evening Standard Theatre Award. Bai ...

as Alfredo Ferrari *

Vincent Schiavelli Vincent Andrew Schiavelli (; November 11, 1948 – December 26, 2005) was an American character actor noted for his work on stage, screen, and television. Described as an "instantly recognizable sad-faced actor", he was diagnosed with Marfan s ...

as Mr. Paradise *

Francesca De Sapio Francesca De Sapio (16 August 1945) is an Italian actress and acting coach, best-known as the young Carmela Corleone in ''The Godfather Part II'' (1974). The daughter of an architect, she was born in Rome. After her father's work took him to th ...

as Adalgisa Ferrari *

Elio Germano Elio Germano (born 25 September 1980) is an Italian actor. He is the recipient of many accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and a Silver Bear for Best Actor. Life and career Born in Rome to a Molisan family from Duro ...

as Enzo Ferrari at 18 years old *

Skandar Keynes Alexander Amin Caspar "Skandar" Keynes (born 5 September 1991) is an English political adviser and former actor. Best known for starring as Edmund Pevensie in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' film series, he appeared in all three installments: ''Th ...

as Enzo Ferrari at 8 years old * Anton Alexander as Lawyer to Enzo Ferrari *

Anthony Souter Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonia (gens), Antonii'', a ''gens'' (Roman naming conventions, Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were ...

as Journalist *

Pastor Maldonado Pastor Rafael Maldonado Motta (; born 9 March 1985) is a Venezuelan professional racing driver, who competed in Formula One for the Williams (2011–2013) and Lotus (2014–2015) teams and as a Pirelli test driver until 2017. Before entering F ...

as Tazio Nuvolari

References

External links

* {{Carlo Carlei 2003 television films 2003 films 2000s Italian television miniseries Italian biographical films English-language Italian films Italian auto racing films Formula One mass media Films set in the 20th century Films directed by Carlo Carlei 2000s biographical films 2000s English-language films Enzo Ferrari