| Senna | |
| Director: | Asif Kapadia |
| Producer: | Chris Berend Tim Bevan Eric Fellner James Gay-Rees |
| Starring: | Ayrton Senna Alain Prost Frank Williams Ron Dennis |
| Music: | Antonio Pinto |
| Cinematography: | Jake Polonsky |
| Editing: | Chris King Gregers Sall |
| Studio: | StudioCanal Working Title Films Midfield Films |
| Distributor: | Universal Pictures (Select territories) Océan Films (France)[1] |
| Runtime: | 106 minutes[2] |
| Country: | United Kingdom France |
| Language: | English Portuguese French Japanese |
| Gross: | $10.9 million[3] |
Senna is a 2010 documentary film that depicts the life and death of Brazilian motor-racing champion Ayrton Senna, directed by Asif Kapadia.[4] The film was produced by StudioCanal, Working Title Films, and Midfield Films, and was distributed by the parent company of the latter two production companies, Universal Pictures.
The film's narrative focuses on Senna's racing career in Formula One, from his debut in the 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix to his death in an accident at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, with particular emphasis on his rivalry with fellow driver Alain Prost. Unlike a traditional documentary, it has no formal commentary or retrospective "talking head" interviews, and relies primarily on archival racetrack and broadcast news footage, voiceover narration, and home video clips provided by the Senna family.
Senna was acclaimed by critics. At the 65th British Academy Film Awards, it won two BAFTAs for Best Documentary and Best Editing, and also received a nomination for Outstanding British Film.
The film begins with archival footage of a young Ayrton Senna racing go-karts. In voiceover, Senna wistfully recalls that back then, "there was no money, no politics – it was real racing."
Senna arrives in Formula One during the 1984 season. The film briefly notes his early successes at Toleman and Lotus but focuses on his years with the British team McLaren – the organization that brought him to global fame – and his rise to World Champion. The drama of this period of his career centers on his rivalry with his teammate Alain Prost and his political struggles with Jean-Marie Balestre, the head of FISA, Formula One's regulator and rules committee. Senna blames Balestre's rulings for costing him the 1989 title and nearly costing him the 1990 title.
Despite fierce competition on track from Prost and off track from Balestre, Senna wins three Formula One titles in four years. The Senna-Prost rivalry climaxes during the 1989 and 1990 seasons, when Senna and Prost engage in controversial on-track crashes that decide the Drivers' Championship in both years. In addition, after years of bad luck, Senna heroically survives a gearbox failure to win his home Brazilian Grand Prix in 1991. By the end of the 1991 season, Senna is firmly established as one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport and a Brazilian cultural icon. He takes on two major crusades: to make Formula One driving safer and to improve conditions for underprivileged children in his home country of Brazil.
During the 1992 season, Senna realizes that McLaren's great rival, Williams, has developed computer-guided racing equipment that slowly turns Formula One from a championship of drivers into a political struggle to get the best car. Senna wastes two years of his career as Nigel Mansell cruises to the title in 1992 and Alain Prost (now with Williams) easily wins in 1993. Although Senna desperately tries to get a Williams drive, Prost is still furious about their broken relationship at McLaren and refuses to be on a team with Senna.
Prost retires at the end of the 1993 season and Senna replaces him at Williams for 1994. Ironically, that same year, Formula One changes its rules to stop Williams from dominating. It bans the electronic driver aids that Mansell and Prost used so effectively in 1992 and 1993. Williams struggles to adapt to the new rules, and the team's performance suffers. The Benetton team's star, Michael Schumacher, wins the first two races of the season. Senna suspects that Benetton is secretly using electronic driver aids but cannot prove it.
The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix is the final weekend of Senna's life. Archival footage shows that Formula One's deficient safety conditions are putting Senna under extreme stress. The drivers witness one track accident after another. Rubens Barrichello is injured in a crash during Friday qualifying, Roland Ratzenberger is killed in an accident during Saturday qualifying, and JJ Lehto stalls and is hit at high speed by Pedro Lamy at the start of the race on Sunday. When racing resumes, Senna fatally crashes due to a mechanical failure. The film concludes with the Senna family and his close friends and adversaries from Formula One mourning his loss at his funeral.
An epilogue title card reveals that Formula One has not had a driver fatality since Senna's death. In addition, Senna's family established the Instituto Ayrton Senna to continue his charitable work.
Unusually for a documentary, "Senna has no talking head interviews and no authoritative commentary."[5] Rather, it is a collage of private home videos, public TV appearances, press conferences and races. Producer Eric Fellner said that the goal was to "feel like Ayrton Senna is telling you the story all the way through."[6]
Kapadia was able to "fashion Senna's story as a live action drama rather than a posthumous documentary."[7] Although the movie was made 25 years after Senna's death, Kapadia was able to tell the story using the abundance of archival footage from Senna's life. Formula One's exploding wealth and popularity in the 1980s and 1990s generated immense media coverage. In addition, Senna's omnipresence on Brazilian and Japanese television provided additional material. Kapadia recalled that by the 1990s, "Ayrton Senna has pretty much got 40 cameras on him everywhere he goes, so it became like cutting a drama. We could literally have a mid shot, a reverse, a two-shot profile and a high-angled helicopter shot if we wanted." With so much material to choose from, Kapadia prioritized events with compelling camera footage, at the cost of omitting some of the most famous moments of Senna's career.
The film was praised for "deliver[ing] an unquestionably cinematic experience", negotiating "a diffuse line between reality and representation."[8] One critic wrote that "like the pop art movement decades prior, Kapadia takes existing elements of mass culture and transforms and recontextualises them."
A special screening of Senna was held on 7 October 2010 at the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix, at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Japan.[9] The official world première was held at the Cinemark Theatre in São Paulo, Brazil on 3 November 2010.[10] It was released in Brazil on 12 November 2010 and the UK on 3 June 2011.
In Japan and Brazil, the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 21 and 24 March 2011, respectively. On 11 October[11] it was released onto home media in the UK and was released on 6 March 2012 in the United States.
Two versions of the film were released, one in cinemas, DVD, Netflix, iTunes, and Blu-ray Disc. The other is only available in the United Kingdom in double-layered Blu-ray Disc, extending the length of the film to 162 minutes, with more interviews and insider information.
The film had a special limited box set edition, that provided the DVD of the film, a double-layered Blu-Ray Disc and a model of one of Senna's racing cars.
Senna received critical acclaim. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 122 reviews, and an average rating of 7.92/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Even for filmgoers who aren't racing fans, Senna offers heart-pounding thrills -- and heartbreaking emotion."[12] Dan Jolin of Empire gave the film 4 stars out of 5 and stated that it is "ambitiously constructed, deeply compelling, thrilling and in no way only for those who like watching cars drive in circles".[13] Steve Rose, writing in The Guardian, also gave the film a 4 out of 5, and praised the fact that "with so much recorded footage of Formula One available, it has been possible to fashion Senna's story as a live action drama rather than a posthumous documentary. We're not so much hearing what happened in the past as seeing it happen before our eyes."[14] [15]
The New York Times
Kapadia sought to condense and stylize Senna's life story, "paring the film down to the bare minimum so that somebody who doesn't like Formula One, or a person who has never heard of Ayrton Senna, will get the film, understand the character, and actually be moved by his story." Certain Formula One figures took issue with this approach. Autosport
In addition, Julian Jakobi (who was Senna and Prost's manager) explained that the movie understated the role of McLaren engine supplier Honda in fueling the rivalry. Prost was a McLaren man and Senna was a Honda man, and so their battle to succeed inflamed existing factions within the McLaren-Honda relationship.[19]
| Award | Category | Recipients and nominees | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sundance Film Festival[20] | World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary | — | |
| Los Angeles Film Festival[21] | Audience Award for Best International Feature | — | |
| Melbourne International Film Festival[22] | People's Choice Awards for Best Documentary | — | |
| Adelaide Film Festival.[23] [24] | Audience Award for Best Documentary | — | |
| BAFTA | Outstanding British Film | — | |
| Best Documentary | — | ||
| Best Editing | Gregers Sall, Chris King | ||
| Writers Guild of America[25] | Best Documentary Screenplay | Manish Pandey | |