Race for Glory: Audi vs Lancia

Writers: Filippo Bologna, Stefano Mordini and Riccardo Scamarcio

Director: Stefano Mordini

Thrillers are exciting and suspenseful. They generally involve crime, including at least one unlawful killing. Viewers are on tenterhooks – how will it end? That excitement is missing in Race for Glory: Audi vs Lancia, which nevertheless bills itself as a thriller. The Top Gear crowd already know the outcome, and everyone else probably won’t be that bothered. There is nothing spectacularly criminal: a minor deceit is practised and some regulations are imaginatively interpreted. As tricks go, these are not so much dirty as lightly soiled.

The film, ‘based on true events’ is the story of Cesare Fiori and his passionate determination to win the 1983 World Rally Championship for Lancia. The prize, as the text at the beginning briefly explains, is a huge boost in sales. Lancia begins as the underdog to Germany’s richly funded and technically superior Audi. Someone at Lancia puts the problem succinctly: “No one wants to buy a car that loses. Let alone one you die in.” As horse-racing partly depends on jockeys, car racing depends on drivers, and Fiori tries to recruit the best, Walter Röhrl, considered one of the greatest rally drivers of all time. According to the film, Röhrl has an inconveniently spiritual approach to the idea of victory, perhaps influenced by his own passion, which is bee-keeping. He does, however, agree to drive in a select few of the year’s rallies. The film begins with a very soignée American journalist asking Fiori some challenging questions. There is a lot of footage of fast driving and a couple of cars catch fire.

Three of Europe’s busiest male actors play leading roles. Volker Bruch, well-known as the troubled detective in Babylon Berlin, is almost unrecognisable as straight-talking Röhrl, who stands up to Fiori: “You know what your problem is? You’re not scared enough.” His moral purity is evident from his off-track style: he dresses like a church youth worker. Daniel Brühl, having once played Niki Lauda (in Rush), is now Roland Gumpert, Fiori’s counterpart at Audi. The two have the relationship of playground rivals. “We’re having a party,” gloats Gumpert, “Because we won.” As Fiori, Riccardo Scamarcio is single-minded, brooding presence. All three actors have wonderfully expressive faces. Unfortunately they are not well-served by the script, for which Scamarcio is partly responsible.

Lines like “Yes we can,” “No you can’t “are inexcusable outside panto. The journalist asks Fiori, “What are you afraid of?” “Losing” he answers. In Scamarcio’s rich timbre words sound profound when they are anything but. Fiori’s most fatuous utterance – “Death is afraid of those who pursue it”- is worthy of a disposable character in Discworld.

It’s a man’s film. The movie poster shows the heads of the three male leads. Astonishingly, the real-life woman driver, Michèle Mouton, who actually drove for Audi, is barely noticeable. She is ably played by Esther Garrel, but she is not named in the film and all we see her do is fix Hannu Mikkola’s engine. Katie Clarkson-Hill brings elegance and dignity as the one significant woman, but her role as Jane McCoy, the Lancia team’s doctor, is not pivotal. She literally makes the tea (herbal, to help the team sleep) and delivers a message. One refreshing aspect is the complete absence of eroticism. The relationship between Fiori and McCoy is entirely collegial. Lines that might sound flirtatious are perfectly professional when attached to the images on screen.

Under Stefano Mordini’s direction the story races to its finish, sometimes, confusingly , cutting time corners. It’s not always obvious where we are. Car enthusiasts will relish the long shots, tearing through country roads accompanied by the nostalgia-inducing scream of a fuel-greedy engine. However, everyone may be bewildered when the camera switches to the driver’s face – if you’re not a trained in passport control it’s hard to tell who is at the wheel. There is a slight frisson to be had from wondering if spectators will get out of the way in time, but this is a film that fails to thrill.

Signature Entertainment presentsRace for Glory: Audi vs Lanciaon Digital Platforms 5th February.