#18 Are You Still Watching? Vital Vroom Vroom Viewing 🏎️
Films to watch with—or instead of—Ferrari, from In The Mood's managing editor Sennah Yee
Vital Vroom Vroom Viewing
by Sennah Yee
Even though I’m named after Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna, I haven’t done much to live up to my namesake—I can’t tell cars apart, I don’t have my driver’s license, and I don’t care if I’m dead last in Mario Kart (I often am). But last summer, I binged all five seasons of Formula 1: Drive to Survive on Netflix in two weeks and instantly became obsessed with F1.
Former F1-driver-turned-climate-activist (lol) Sebastian Vettel once said, “Everyone is a Ferrari fan. Even if they say they’re not, they’re Ferrari fans.” And he’s right, even though I only chose Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as my favourite driver because he reminded me of Timothée Chalamet. Not to mention Leclerc looks sooo good in red, which happens to be both mine and his favourite colour since childhood. In the words of Enzo Ferrari himself, “Ask a child to draw a car, and certainly he will draw it red.”
When the algorithm fed me a video of Leclerc driving director Michael Mann around a Grand Prix track to promote Ferrari, as a new F1 girlie and longtime Mann Superfann, I ate up this smorgasbord of all my interests. Naturally, I went to see Ferrari opening week—and while I found it to be an absolute bore, when I got home I still pulled up an old F1 race to watch before bed, a new nightly ritual. It ended up being a rare race where Leclerc won, dominating in a beautiful matte red Ferrari car, dimpled smile on the podium.
So, for all you Ferrari fans out there (a.k.a. everyone), here’s my list of movies to watch with—or instead of—Ferrari:
Grand Prix (1966)
Spurs similar thoughts I have when watching a real Grand Prix: stunning race sequences revealing man-made and man-becoming machines, blood-red Ferrari propaganda, life and death and sex drives, and a tad too long—a real F1 race is usually two hours, this movie was three—perfect for nodding off a bit to the hum of nyoooooms. I was also delightfully surprised at the amount of time spent on the drivers’ WAGs (slang for athletes’ wives and girlfriends). I know the point was to show their concern for their beloved babes putting their lives at risk, but all I found myself thinking was oh, to be the best blasé bombshell basking in the paddock…
Le Mans (1971)
Steve McQueen plays a driver participating in Le Mans, an annual 24-hour endurance race (I still have trouble accepting this actually exists in the real world lol). Kudos to one of the driver’s widows for finally asking what goes through all our minds when we think about cars going round and round, again and again: “When people risk their lives, shouldn’t it be for something very important?” In response, McQueen mutters something back about how “racing is life.” I roll my eyes at this, then risk my sanity later that night by staying up until 2:00 a.m., scrolling on Tumblr for GIFs of cute F1 drivers looped and looped, again and again.
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
No character in this has a name, all that matters is how fast they’re going—orbiting one another on the road, peering through each other’s car windows, nests. The men relish the eroticism of revealing what’s under the hood, flirting through talking about car parts like they’re bragging about girlfriends’ bodies, throwing around random numbers for manufacturer years, gears, speeds. Winning with a vessel built by your own hands, “those satisfactions are permanent,” says GTO. A big lie. There are two moments in particular where I stand corrected and breathless: the first is when the group encounters two crashed cars on the road, like belly-up beetles, and simply move on—much like a Grand Prix, where cars just keep going and going and going even if there’s an accident, only stopping if they’re told, tamed. And then there’s the very last scene with The Driver sitting in his car, waiting for another race to begin. He glances out the car window where he sees horses grazing in the distance, where an endless horizon is both blessing and curse.
Death Race 2000 (1975)
Frankenstein, the reigning race champion, is secretly an assembly line of many men, replaced whenever there’s an injury or death. The idea of immortality has always terrified rather than seduced me. But still, I floor it headfirst towards the sun, dressed head to toe in leather—to protect my skin from wrinkles, of course.
Crash (1996)
The whole time I was watching Drive to Survive, I wondered what David Cronenberg would think of it. In the first episode, a driver describes racing as “all rhythm and feeling... you feel just like one with the car, as if it were your own body.” Later, a team principal says the drivers have a “fighter-pilot mentality, and that’s what separates them from mere mortals.” Maybe that’s why the curved bar encircling the racecar’s cockpit, designed to protect the driver’s head, is called a halo. No one wants a crash—and yet, commentators and crowds shout in ecstasy when drivers go wheel-to-wheel. And post-release, I gasp: the totalled cars are then hooked onto a crane for all to see—dangling ornaments, carrots. I snap my teeth at the air. I think of Vaughan in Crash tattooing car emblems onto his body, fresh ink kissed bloody. I dream about getting my driver’s license, at last, my hair flying into my mouth on a freeway.
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
Men making myths making men. I mean, wouldn’t you want to impress a god who keeps gazing back at you?
Senna (2010)
I used to chuckle at the idea of my dad waking up early to watch cars drive around in circles. I never thought they looked very fast on TV—but seeing that onboard footage, that horizon leaking and boundless, I get it. You want to be closer to cosmic, further from your self, beyond any body. I never thought I believed in worship—and yet I believe in ritual, in rapture. How else would I have gotten my name?
Sennah Yee is the author of How Do I Look? and My Day With Gong Gong.
Wondering what to watch?
Choose a mood on our Film Recommendation Generator and get a curated pick from writers, filmmakers, poets, and artists.
Donate
If you’d like to donate to our mag you can do so through our PayPal! We’re volunteer-run, and donations go directly to the mag and contributor honorariums.