A genius, a visionary, an innovator. Ferruccio Lamborghini was described in these and many other terms, the founder of one of the most famous car brands in the world, whose story is told in a film produced by Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi which will be released in Italy on Prime Video in January 2023. a few days after the thirtieth year of his death.
“Lamborghini – The Man Behind the Legend” had its world premiere at the Rome Film Festival, and is freely inspired by “Ferruccio Lamborghini, the official story”, one of the five books written by his son, the entrepreneur Tonino Lamborghini. Set after World War II, it tells the story of Ferruccio starting from his return home after his experience in the army.It was then, at the age of just over thirty, that he decided to launch himself into the production of agricultural vehicles, founding Lamborghini Trattori, which In the wake of his enormous passion for sports cars, Lamborghini Automobili will follow in 1963, which will lead him to compete with Enzo Ferrari.In the background is the history of Italy in the 1950s, a country engaged in the complex transition towards a new industrialized modernity.
Written and directed by Academy Award winner for “Crash”, Bobby Moresco, the film stars actor Frank Grillo in the role of Cento’s entrepreneur. The cast also includes Mira Sorvino as Annita Borgatti, Ferruccio’s second wife, a woman who played a fundamental role in the growth of the company, and then Gabriel Byrne as Enzo Ferrari and Hannah Van Der Westhuy as Clelia Monti, the entrepreneur’s first wife. To interpret Tonino Lamborghini is instead Lorenzo Viganò, while a young Tony Renis has the face of Giovanni Antonacci, son of Biagio Antonacci and nephew of Gianni Morandi.
“Ferruccio Lamborghini’s rise from a farmer’s son to a world-renowned industrialist, arguably the greatest automobile manufacturer of his time and of all time, coincided with Italy’s post-war shift from an agricultural to an industrial nation. It was a fascinating and exciting period for people like Lamborghini and for the country, and certainly also an excellent starting point for making a film – explained Moresco – In this great narrative scenario there was one particular story that interested me very very much. How does the mind of a genius work? It is certainly a difficult question, so the difficulty in telling the story arose from the attempt to enter the mind and heart of a visionary like Ferruccio. A visionary, by his own definition, is someone who sees things that the rest of us not only don’t see, but can barely imagine.”
«I only had two weeks from when they offered me the film upon arrival on the set to prepare – said Frank Grillo – I read as much as possible, and I know that Bobby had done a lot of research, I trusted him completely. Then I’m of Italian origins, my father comes from Calabria, my mother from Naples. The idea of interpreting one of the greatest Italian industrialists was exciting».
