The legend of Formula One racing champion Ayrton Senna lives on in the new documentary feature, ?Senna.? The 104-minute film from director Asif Kapadia follows the rise and spectacular global triumph of the racing giant, and delves into his personal and political struggles in the Brazil of the 1980s.
The film includes film clips from Senna?s family members and former teammates, and explores the circumstances that led to the driver?s death at age 34 in a crash at the 1994 San Marino Gran Prix.
Car people have long debated the merits of racing classics like John Frankenheimer?s ?Grand Prix? and Steve McQueen?s ?Le Mans.? They typically rate higher than the more-recent ?Days of Thunder? or ?Driven.? But for racing fans, ?Senna? has the potential to transcend the sometimes-disappointing genre of motorsport movies.
Read some reviews of the film here.
?Overcast with foreboding even for the theoretical viewer who doesn?t already know Senna?s fate, Asif Kapadia?s expertly orchestrated documentary-biography condenses the breakneck decade leading up to its subject?s apotheosis on May 1, 1994, beginning with Senna?s arrival in Europe after a karting career in his native Brazil?Even nonbelievers in Senna?s sport and church will find it difficult to visit Kapadia?s cinematic shrine without emotion.? [Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice]
Comprised entirely of archival news, TV and home movie footage, without talking heads, the Universal release from Working Title feels lavish by normal documentary standards and will have great appeal in such F1 hotbeds as Europe and South America, with domestic prospects less certain?For the benefit of non-racing fans, Asif Kapadia, a dramatic fiction director making his first documentary, might usefully have included some discussion of what of what separates the truly great drivers from the legions of the merely excellent.? [Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter]
?Senna is considered one of motorsporting?s greats, but Asif Kapadia?s film also makes it clear he was a sort of artist, his talent accompanied by an unquenchable thirst for excellence and a belief that racing offered him a connection to God?Kapadia composes ?Senna? entirely out of archival footage, of Senna on the track and off, preparing for races, relaxing at home, being interviewed by the press as his fame grew, and jittering in the corner of a car-mounted camera as the road goes by impossibly fast beneath him.? [Alison Willmore, A.V. Club]
Familiarity with the record-breaking accomplishments of Brazilian Formula One race-car champion Ayrton Senna, who first roared to global fame in 1984, isn?t necessary for falling under the thrall of ?Senna,? this dazzling documentary.? [Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly]
The story of racing driver Ayrton Senna ? charming, talented, mouthy and dead at 34 after a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix in May 1994 ? was screaming to be told, and this moving and often funny film brims with energy, passion and respect. The drama was already there: the rivalry with Frenchman Alain ?The Professor? Prost, the crashes, the backroom politics, the rapturous Brazilian fanbase, the appeals to God and the tragic ending. Director Asif Kapadia (?The Warrior?, ?Far North?) takes us back to that era with a documentary that roots us in the emotion and feel of the period. No narration. No talking heads. No new footage. And surprisingly little Murray Walker. Those are the rules, and they make for a rousing watch, both sad and celebratory.
Give or take some priceless backstage footage culled from the Formula 1 archives of fiery drivers? meetings or home video of Senna?s close family on holiday ? including a tanned, toned Ayrton lounging in tight black Speedos on a yacht ? this is mostly made up of TV clips and other found footage, with all the grainy sense of intimacy and immediacy that brings with it. The look of the film stresses the public rise and fall of Senna, while voices offscreen guide us through the story. Senna was a TV star and pin-up, a celebrity who took Formula 1 to new places and acclaim during the decade he dominated it. He first shot to prominence speeding through the rain at the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix. Later, he showed astonishing stamina when fighting to finish the 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix stuck in sixth gear, determined not to fail at home. He flirted with his girlfriend, Adriane Galisteu, live on her TV show. And, of course, he died in front of cameras, his car flying off the track at Imola with the moment repeated endlessly on TV.
Inevitably, a cloud of doom hangs over the film?s final section, and Antonio Pinto?s varied score, moving from electro-jazz to more orchestral sounds and always with a distinctly Brazilian vibe, adjusts accordingly to remind us what?s coming. But this film isn?t ever an intro leading to a death. Most of it deals with a select chronology of races and crashes, team swaps and victories. Prost always looms over Senna?s shoulder, and Kapadia sets up an entertaining contrast between the Brazilian?s passion and the Frenchman?s steely pragmatism, as well as placing Prost in a Gallic axis of evil with Formula 1 boss Jean-Marie Balestre, who emerges as the film?s villain. ?The best decision is my decision,? he growls, smiling. It?s hard not to boo or throw things at the screen.
This is a Proustian madeleine of a film that will jolt the nostalgia of anyone who was even vaguely aware of Formula 1 in the late 1980s and early ?90s. Even if you couldn?t give two crank shafts about motor racing, Senna?s life remains a remarkable one and this film is a punchy, good-looking and clever tribute that should have an appeal far beyond a petrolhead crowd.
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