We met him in Cannes on the occasion of the 77th edition of the Film Festival. Pierfrancesco Favino is busy with his debut as a member of the jury headed by Greta Gerwig. We manage to steal him away from his pressing jury duties for 30 minutes. The aim? To talk about his relationship with the car and the role of the car in cinema. But also about private journeys, solo and shared, through to the challenges of the ecological transition… Including that time, on the set of Rush, standing next to the Ferrari 312 T, when he wanted to tell director Ron Howard: "I'll drive!" The full interview is available in the July issue of L'Automobile, the ACI magazine.

Is there a journey in your life that has left the deepest mark?
It was 2002, a solo trip that started in Mexico and ended in Belize. A month and a half alone, crossing a large part of Mexico, Guatemala and on to Belize. I needed to process something that had happened in my life, something that had left a deep mark inside me. The journey, in that case, was my way of ritualising that thing.

It must have been quite an adventure…
… A rental car picked up in Cancún, an improvised trip — I didn't even know that I wouldn't be allowed to take that car into other countries; I'd leave it behind, then pick it up again… But a solo journey is never really solo: in the end you end up meeting hundreds of people, a gallery of memories and sensations you carry with you forever.

A trip with friends?
I've taken plenty of those. And they often have to do with youth. They were the journeys that marked my first taste of independence. Getting my licence was the first thing I did — we got in a car and off we went! The car belonged to my girlfriend at the time; I have to say it was a nice car — I'll admit, we were a bit spoilt (Pierfrancesco laughs heartily, ed.). Then there were other trips, many of them, by car, by boat, all united by a pursuit of movement, of discovery; curiosity has always been a defining trait of mine.

So, the car is a passion of yours. What can you tell us about the role it plays in cinema? Two worlds that seem distant, two great inventions that conquered the 20th century…
There are scenes in cinema that have made the car iconic, that have themselves become iconic thanks to the car. Think of The Graduate, of 8½, of Fellini's La Dolce Vita. Of Thelma and Louise, of Natural Born Killers… Think of how the look of certain 1950s Dodges defined an era in popular culture, how much our connection to cinema is shaped in part by the form of the automobile. We often place the era in which a film is set thanks to a particular model or marque. Think of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, of how many cars play a leading role in the film's scenes, from Sonny's death to that of Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone.

In a recent interview you said: "I think any technological revolution must be accompanied by labour protections." What do you think about the electric transition in the car industry?
These are evolving technologies. The electric car is an experience — an enjoyable one from the point of view of driving pleasure. When I'm in an electric car I feel like I'm taking part in something more global. Of course, the infrastructure is necessary for the change to happen. But I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be a transitional phase towards technologies that can allow a further step forward.

2035 — what comes to mind?
I hope we get there prepared. We all need to be more aware — not so much of the Earth, but of ourselves. Celebrating Earth Day is all well and good, but the Earth has endured for millennia and will continue to exist because its capacity for resilience is decidedly greater than ours. We should start thinking that the environment is us, and therefore learn to respect ourselves first and foremost — our possibilities of life, of survival. That is where respect for the resources we still have at our disposal begins to develop.

On the subject of respect for the environment, you have said: "I dream of an electric, silent Rome, so we can reclaim our monuments"…
If there is a city that could afford to be a "zero-impact" city, it is Rome. And yet it is a city in serious difficulty — its urban structure would call for a rethink of the planning and management of private traffic and road mobility in general. It would be wonderful to imagine a Rome like Venice, silent and with a more liveable mobility.