Looking for date night movies, I ran across a documentary about the 1,000-mile Mille Miglia endurance races held between 1927 and 1957 in Italy. Too bad it’s not available through Netflix (although here’s the trailer). But I was reminded about a wonderful interview I heard on This American Life — Dan Neil, automotive critic for the Los Angeles Times talks to Stirling Moss, the race car driver who holds the speed record for completing the race. Neil takes a drive with Moss in the famous winning car — that’s the car in the photo, a Mercedes Benz 300 SLR. If you take a look at the podcast, it’s the last piece — “Act Five. End of the Road”.
By the way, Moss is still going strong, and even has a website worth checking out!
After reading Go Like Hell, about the Ford/Ferrari rivalry from the 60’s, my husband suggested we rent the movies Grand Prix and Le Mans. This week was Le Mans, from 1971, starring Steve McQueen. This movie is almost a documentary, with lots of wonderful race fotage but not much story, and a very grim looking McQueen. He seems “grim” to me, but he may be just single-mindedly focused on the race (although I’d hate to walk through life never smiling!) There’s a girl thrown in the mix, turning up in places that don’t seem logical, and there’s no chemistry between her and McQueen.
