Michael Mann’s Ferrari takes place in the summer of 1957 following Enzo Ferrari, played by Academy Award nominee Adam Driver, through his personal and professional struggles. Ferrari not only has a kinetic energy following the race sequences, but a truly authentic Italian feel throughout the film. Production Designer Maria Djurkovic discussed her work on the film with our Awards Editor, Jillian.

Jillian Chilingerian: I love this movie so much. It’s number three of the year for me because I just can’t get over how much I think about it.
Maria Djurkovic: Aw, thank you!

Jillian Chilingerian: I just love this world of Ferrari, it was a story that was unknown to me, I knew a little bit, but watching it visually was just so like, weirdly, life changing in a way of just like having this movie really hit you hard. So I’m like really excited to dive into bringing that world to life with these characters in these locations.
Maria Djurkovic: Great. Well, that’s a fantastic response.

Jillian Chilingerian: So first, I want to dive into when you first got the script, and what your approach was with all this research. Because I’m sure there was a lot to go through.
Maria Djurkovic: Yes, the script clearly read very well, immediately. And designing for Michael Mann was something that was a bit of a gift as well. He’s an extraordinary filmmaker, obviously. It’s like you read that material, you put it together with that director, it’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? I knew it was going to be challenging, which it was. But at the same time, it felt like material, certainly, that as a designer, I could really get my teeth into. I always do an awful lot of research, I work with a visual researcher, and we just hit the subject from every single direction. And he puts everything on a website, and we just have literally 1000s and 1000s of images. And I always figured one of the reasons I ended up doing this job was because I am quite obsessive-compulsive about that. And I think that appealed to Michael, for him, it’s all about character, and it’s all about veracity. He made that very clear from the beginning. Sometimes you’re doing a subject on a movie where there’s less material around visual photographic material, obviously, this is 1957. And it’s a subject that was very well documented. So all the stuff surrounding the races, we found a lot of material. You get into the boring stuff, which is all the clearances, the legal stuff, all that branding, of which there is a ton surrounding the races, and you get the clearance you can clear that stuff if you are completely, historically accurate. So we ended up suddenly getting all this research material and then saying this is the start ramp in Brescia in 1957. But then, this advertising is different. So you realize that you found something on the internet that is incorrect they’ve actually incorrectly titled it, so you’re then having to do all the research to find out which is the version that really happened in 1957. And then you’ll get clearance for all that branding. So there’s that on the one side.

And so, just because you’re working with a director who wants to be really, really true to that stuff, but because you also legally have to be really true to that stuff, to be able to do it. Nobody, nobody would even consider that as something we have to do. But quite boringly we do. The rest of the stuff, the domestic side of things. Obviously, you can’t research what Enzo Ferrari’s house looked like in ’57. That doesn’t exist, that’s more about digging into the character and having conversations with the director about who he is and how he lives. And it was very important to Michael to get that absolutely right. I think he was very concerned that people think of Ferrari, and you think of lots of money and huge wealth, and at this stage in his life. That wasn’t the case. There’s quite a sort of bourgeois quality to his home. Modena has a very specific aesthetic. One of the things again that Michael said to me right from the start, even in my interview, is that in Italy, and of course he’s completely right, each of these towns has some very specific feel, which is totally different from somewhere else. It’s an hour down the road. The food is different, the furniture is different, it’s really interesting. So he said right from the start that it was terribly important to get that right. So there are various scenes where people are eating these very heavy meat-based meals, it’s not what you think of as Italian food, there’s a lot of meals eaten in that area that are very meaty. So it’s all the levels of everything, you need to smell it, you need to feel every bit of it. And I know that was really important to him, then you’ve got obviously the character stuff. And the difference between the house he lives in with Laura and Lina is very different, very different places.

It was very clear that there was almost a monochrome palette, apart from clearly the red stuff and the racing cars, there’s a monochrome that we kind of created our own version of monochrome. So that comes from the colors of the city from Modena, which it’s very obvious, right immediately, what that’s going to be Modena has such a distinct color palette and feel to it. And so, we kind of use that as a base. In the case of the Ferrari house, the colors are fairly somber, and he wanted it to feel oppressive. There’s that there’s that very crazy wall covering that’s in Laura’s bedroom, which is something that Michael took a photograph of in the bedroom, which was how I had it decorated when she died in the 70s. And gave me a photograph and said, ‘This is completely right for her state of mind. And I want this on the walls in her room.’ And we had to create it ourselves. So, what we ended up I was this one photo that he’d taken from that, again, you have the boring legal stuff where you can’t copy anything directly, so you have to change it. But it has to feel the same. If that makes sense. We do that all the time. That’s something we do with posters and graphics all the time, you’re trying to get the essence of it to feel the same, but it’s got to be different. So, we did a version of that and we printed it. And we ended up putting it on all the walls. And that was again, a very key image for him. And something that he just felt was completely right for her. And it was actually a copy of what she had on her walls.

There’s obviously nothing about the farmhouse that was something, that again, was quite a tricky location to find, because there’s all that stuff at the opening of the film where he gets in the car, and he goes down the hill, and then he only turns the engine on once he’s away from the house. So, there’s a lot in the script, which describe these long driveways with cypress trees along the drive, and then the farm and actually, so we had quite a specific brief, which was the drive that had to go down. The house had to feel right. And we did a lot of hunting for that farmhouse, we did a lot of hunting, actually, for both those interiors. When you see the right place, you kind of know it’s the right place. We saw the farmhouse and we brought Michael there. And he immediately said, ‘Yes, this is it.’ So, then we worked on a much brighter, warmer, happy environment where he felt very much at ease and comfortable. The factory was very much like almost a character piece. There are a lot of photographs of the factory. Most of the pictures are obviously black and white. So, you have to have a certain amount of extrapolation. There are amazing black-and-white photographs of his office. And what’s fascinating is the simplicity. I mean, we did that in the films, nothing on the walls, it was one wall-mounted telephone, there’s this cleanness and precision about the design, almost Bauhaus kind of elevations to the factory. And that was really important as well because it said it spoke volumes about Enzo it told us about the order, he had in his working environment versus the kind of chaos he had at home. So, we had to achieve that as well. We ended up finding a location that was actually a building of the wrong period, but it had the right shape. One thing that was really key to me was that the factory had a big, cobbled courtyard, and this place had a cobbled courtyard. It was actually a factory for dairy products from the 60s it was red brick. And so, what we ended up doing was completely facing every elevation and covered with plywood and plaster, and some of it is built in its entirety, like the main gate, and some of it is the 60s factory buildings with a new face.

And, yeah, I saw this place. And I immediately thought this could work. And I was just saying in a previous interview that it was right at the start of the film with my set decorator, and I had booked a weekend on Lake Garda. I’d sent the photos of this place to Michael, and I got a message saying, so send me your proposal of how you’re going to make it look like the factory. And so, my weekend spent a lot of time getting steering, people who were drawing craftspeople into doing a presentation for him to show him how we could how we could do that. So obviously, the main gate that you see that the Ferrari sign and all of that, that we built, and his office is within that building, and then the rest. So, it’s a kind of composite of location completely recovered with built bits that we put in the right place to make actually something that is really, really not at all dissimilar to the original place. And then the office, it’s interesting the simplicity of that office was very key. All the photographs that exist are black and white. So, I suggested that sort of charcoal blue color, which Michael really liked that combined with the sort of buttermilk yellow of the exterior. He called it he called it Maria’s blue. We don’t know what color it actually is. I think it was blue. No, I think we found a description somewhere that said it was blue. But that version of it was obviously something that we just felt was right.

Jillian Chilingerian: Yeah, everything that you’re saying is exactly the stuff that I as I was watching as the audience, I was thinking into because I really love how the color palettes and the different locations really inform the character’s journey specifically, like Enzo, I read it as he’s confined in his masculinity as he’s going through these really difficult periods. Just it was one of the first films where you’re also kind of thinking about, like, he’s broke at this moment, what is he going to do? And how is that represented around the way he’s living, I love how it’s really informed of what he’s thinking based on the environments that he’s in. And we see him differently when he’s at the farmhouse versus when he’s at work when he is back at home, and how he interacts with each person, and these relationships. And I just love that tie back to it.
Maria Djurkovic: Right, but the other thing as well is where they fit in, socially. One of the things again, is that I know Michael was absolutely adamant that no one thinks of Ferrari as wealthy and loads of money surrounding Ferraris. And at this point, it’s not that extravagant yet, there’s something quite bourgeois about that house that he shares with Laura. And then and then that farmhouse is a bit of that really is his sanctuary, isn’t it? So, all of that you’re working, you’re trying to inform, I guess my job is works on so many different levels, that you’re thinking about exactly what you said character, what it’s doing emotionally, the use of the colors, how, how is that aiding and abetting the story? How is it helping the characters, you’re also obviously telling the story of the period. I hate the nose design, it is 1957, and therefore, everything in this room is from 1957. That’s not how people live. Certainly not how Ferrari would have lived. But at the same time, you want it to feel like; it is Italy in 1957. It was modern in 1957. And so, there are certain things but I think you just have to try to I have an expression with my set decorator, who we’ve done many films together. And when we start a project, the first thing we always say we have to do is get our eye in, if that makes getting our eye means sort of just understanding the place the geography, what it is that makes it specific to other places, what is it about the characters that are so specific and so important.

Plus, you also mustn’t forget, I mean, clearly, a really important part is giving the whole piece an aesthetic. That’s first and foremost the thing of finding out what it is, that is going to give that piece the aesthetic. So, you’re in the world of that movie, from the minute you start watching it till the minute it finishes. And in a way, this one was a gift. I mean the aesthetics of all the car stuff with those amazing, there was a mate that amazing read, it’s a fantastic read, it’s just this fabulous read. You’ve got that. And then you’ve got the city of Modena has a very specific color palette as well. So, when Michael said he wanted to find almost a monochrome we kind of created our own version of monochrome from that city. He was talking a lot about lighting it in the way he was looking at Caravaggio with Erik [Messerschmidt], and so that informs you as well about the way the colors are going to go. That’s the fun bit, it’s discovering, that’s the bit that I really enjoy. I don’t like being on set, my pleasure is in finding it, and discovering what the visual world of the piece is going to be. And I love the fact that every time I don’t know what my next film is going to be, I haven’t got a clue and you find yourself immersing yourself in a world that you haven’t had to research before that you haven’t had to think about before. I am not a car person, I still wonder how I managed to get variety. But, it’s the one that’s wonderful, that whole aesthetic, the Italian thing 1957 It’s great. The clothes and, and the whole look, it’s just such a lovely thing to discover. And I think if you find the joy in that, I think that’s I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I still really enjoy it. And that’s the bit that’s really enjoyable, is discovering what it is that you’re going to be putting in front of the camera, I guess.

Jillian Chilingerian: Yeah, that’s so poetic. Because I really love just everything that you’re saying. And going back to the lighting. It did feel like I was watching a painting whether we were in the lush greenery or the interiors. And I’m wondering about your role when you’re finding these spaces when you’re thinking of the DP and how that informs you. Because I also feel like these places are so textured, too. And as you mentioned, it kind of helps us as the audience kind of almost live in this world, too, for the amount of time we get to spend on it. So, I’m curious about how the idea of lighting plays into when you are visually designing.
Maria Djurkovic: Well, I have to tell you that once I mean, we had really short prep time on this film, I had 11 weeks, and my set decorator had 10 weeks. And when you think I can’t remember it was something like 120 set numbers, that’s 120 different spaces that you’re having to put together in your 11 weeks. It’s crazy. And you work at such an extraordinary speed. So, I would be lying to you if I said every set had huge, considered conversations. Once the train has left the station, you’re on that train and you’re running and you’re not stopping. And I think that intuitive thing. I mean, like I’m really happy with the way the costumes work with what I was doing. I think they’re very they sit really comfortably together. That’s what I feel. I mean, my smile and I barely had any conversations at all. It’s down to the director, the choice and I’ve always found that with the directors that I’ve most enjoyed is not necessarily the right word. They’re the ones that are the most fulfilling processes are the people who it’s the time that they’re putting together their teams, that’s when the outcome is going to work or not work. And it’s about that. It’s about that more than endless. There’s a shorthand there’s an intuitive if the people that the director puts together the right people that it’s an easy process. We talked a bit about all the research, I will photograph, I will print everything, and put it on the wall. So, you’re not looking at images on a computer screen, you’re looking at 1000s of images that are stuck to the walls, and you breathe it, you sense it, you feel it. I ended up always everyone lost because I filled up the art department, and floor-to-ceiling wallpaper and then started going down the corridor, which we did on this job where the imagery continues down the corridor to the ladies’ lavatories down to accounts around the corner. And it becomes play, it’s a really good tool of communication because you can talk and talk and talk about aesthetics, and it sort of until you’re actually looking at it, it makes no sense.

So doing the visual research like this, it’s amazing, not just this movie, any movie, how when you do that, and then you look at the film, it’s really obvious the way you’ll know how it’s going to end up looking. And it’s a way of communicating, obviously, first and foremost with the director, but then with the DP with the costume designer with the rest of the art department as well. So, you’re never surprised by anything, there’s a color palette that’s there, it’s surrounding you, everywhere you look, there’s a mood, there are images, like of course, for all the race stuff, there’s a lot of archival material that we got our hands on. But then for the domestic stuff, clearly, that is something that we’ve made those decisions the kind of furniture, the kind of house, the kind of financial level, then the colors that you’re putting on the walls, or the textile that you’re choosing for the curtains, that’s something that’s artistic license, that’s us, but I try to do that as much as I can from a very informed place. And then the bit I really get my kicks from is actually that sort of, I guess, it’s an editing process where you use the bits that you want to use, and you leave behind the bits you don’t want to use. And you’re always working to a to a goal. It’s like finding the essence of the period or the character or what the whole aesthetic for that movie is. And every step that you take works towards it. Sometimes you can work on a movie, and I always say this, every single location choice is absolutely vital. You can never just go, ‘Oh, we’re only in there for a few feet. That’ll do.’ I mean, that’s about the way Michael works. Anyway, this is something that would never be an issue working with him because he’s absolutely driven to find the right everything. The right everything that makes it a challenging job. There’s no doubt about it. But it’s also satisfying. It’s very satisfying when you get there. And you can all step away from it and think, ‘Okay, I think we got that right.’

Jillian Chilingerian: No, I love hearing about how people because I feel like everyone kind of internalizes or takes in information differently. And the artistic process, I love it so much. And, again, I just love this movie. I want to learn everything that I can about something that I love, and the choices in all this. So, this was very informative. And I love your energy, and just the work you did on this was immaculate, I love how everything came together.
Maria Djurkovic: The other thing that for me is really crucial. This thing talking about veracity and getting it right and that’s why I hate that idea of design, which is it’s 1957, therefore, everything comes from that year that was so not the way we’re working. I think that apart from the old radio or a telephone, there’s nothing that is actually new. I watch old movies not even necessarily for the movie, but just I’m looking at all those interiors. That’s the bit I love. Then not so often you see this short period stuff where you just think that’s not right. That’s not how people live. It’s getting there for the right reasons that’s what I still get my kicks from when I do this job.

Jillian Chilingerian: I love that. Well, thank you so much! It was so nice to meet you and again, I really loved this conversation.
Maria Djurkovic: Well, it was really nice talking to you! Thank you for your time.

Ferrari is exclusively in theaters now.