RACE AGAINST TIME
Sometimes it’s a stretch to draw parallels between an artist’s work and their personal experience, but not so with James Mangold and his latest film, Le Mans ’66. The director, freely and unprompted, compares the challenge faced by his heroes – the American motor-racing stars on a mission to design a Ford car that can beat a Ferrari – with that of getting a movie made.
“It’s really analogous to my experience of making movies and the kind of relationships that you have, and the kind of battles that you go through to physically produce a film,” says Mangold. “In dealing with money and finances and marketing and corporate types and eccentrics and stunt people and artists… I very much recognised the world of racing in my own.”
It’s September 2019, and Mangold has brought his movie – slightly more snappily titled in the US – to the Toronto International Film Festival. He’s ensconced in the city’s Fairmont Royal York hotel with his stars, Matt Damon and Christian Bale. Damon plays Carroll Shelby, the Texan racing
