Ferrari Editor Pietro Scalia Reveals Secrets Behind Scenes
It is almost like a Shakespearean drama with a lot of cool action,” says two-time Oscar-winning film editor Pietro Scalia of Michael Mann’s new Ferrari, which is based on the biography Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine and explores the life of the eponymous automaker (played by Adam Driver) as he struggles personally and professionally in 1957.
In his first pairing with the director, Scalia — who won his Oscars for JFK (shared with Joe Hutshing) and Black Hawk Down — emphasizes that while thrilling race scenes were created, Mann’s focus was first on character and key relationships, like those between Enzo and Laura (Enzo’s wife, portrayed by Penélope Cruz) and Enzo and Lena (his lover, portrayed by Shailene Woodley). “I remember that he loved to see the contrast between how Driver would play his character in front of Laura or with his mother or with Lena,” he recalls.
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They used scenes such as one set around a performance of “Parigi, o Cara” from the opera La Traviata to great effect. “It’s kind of a lyrical moment in the film,” Scalia says. “The [shots of the] singers, the tenor and the soprano are really tight, unusual for an opera performance. Mann was interested in being close with the actors and linking each character’s emotions and relation to that song.”
He notes that Enzo’s reaction to the opera “is about flashback with his [recently deceased] son, Dino, on a bicycle on a hill. The emotions from Lena listening to the song [evoke] mentioning to Enzo she is pregnant and looking at her joy.”
For Laura, who is at home listening through a window, “we flash back to Enzo dancing and singing that opera while she’s in bed with her son. It’s a happy time. Yet her reaction is also sad because of that loss,” the editor explains. “It connects their lives and what it meant with their son. The reactions on Penélope Cruz were amazing in the dailies, and trying to pick the right amount of reaction in terms of tears or a smile, that’s the delicate part of it.” He adds that Enzo’s mother, Adalgisa (Daniela Piperno), also suggests loss. “We see her in her room surrounded by photographs of her past with her son leaving for war.” He adds that a lot of time was spent on that scene — “shaving frames, tightening it” — to convey how they feel and how they’re connected. “It’s the accuracy and specificity of the emotions in a limited amount of time and the shots used to get the most effective result,” Scalia says. “The end result is you really have to feel it.”
Production sound mixer Lee Orloff notes that the singing was recorded live at Teatro Comunale Pavarotti-Freni in Modena, Italy, where filming took place. “It is absolutely authentic,” he says.
Authenticity was top of mind throughout the project. Supervising sound editor and rerecording mixer Tony Lamberti found a 1957 Maserati 250 F1 and 1953 Ferrari 250 Mille Miglia PF V12 owned by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and a 1955 Lancia Ferrari D50A owned by billionaire Anthony Bamford to record specific sounds for the racing scenes.
Supervising sound editor Bernard Weiser adds that efforts to keep the film authentic included crowd recordings. “I researched the whole starting list of all the race car drivers in the 1957 Mille Miglia to make sure that the crowds would be shouting out the different drivers’ [names],” he says, reporting that pit crew dialogue was similarly researched and scripted. “It was decided that the group would be all Italian — not just Italian, but northern Italian, to make sure it was accurate.”
This story first appeared in a December stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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