Alfa Romeo - Media and Public Profile

Media and Public Profile

In Italian the owner of an Alfa Romeo is an "Alfista", and a group of them are "Alfisti". There are many thriving Alfa Romeo owners clubs and Alfa Romeo Model Registers.

The Graduate

Probably the most famous appearance and presence on screen of any Alfa is in the 1967 hit film The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross and Anne Bancroft. It gave worldwide celebrity to the "Spider". The Spider depicted on screen had its engine note accurately recorded, and electrical foibles (the non-functional fuel gauge) reproduced. On the strength of the Spider's appeal, Alfa Romeo continued sales of the Spider into the 1990s, and a special edition named the Alfa Graduate was available in the United States in the 1980s.

The entire set of scenes featuring the Spider in the Graduate were replicated in satire by Mike Myers in his comedy, Wayne's World 2. The Spider here cuts out Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" when passing under a bridge (implying music being played on a radio), but still has a non-functional fuel gauge - causing it to ultimately grind to halt (fortunately at the correct church!)

The Spider was designed by Pininfarina; derived from several design studies dating back to the late 1950s, the Spider is believed to be the last design on which Battista Farina personally worked.

James Bond

One of the most prominent roles was when James Bond (Roger Moore) stole and then drove a graphite GTV6 in 1983's Octopussy. In the scene it is pursued by two Bavarian BMW 5-series police cars.

A pair of black Alfa Romeo 159 Ti cars appeared in the opening scenes of the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace. They featured in the car chase with James Bond's Aston Martin DBS V12 around Lake Garda, Italy. Noteworthy attention was paid to the auditory qualities of the Alfa's, which have the characteristic 'Big V-6' sound on-screen. The same film also features a Carabineri Alfa 156. Rene Mathis also has an Alfa, a white 2600 GT coupé.

Other films

• Giulietta Masina in Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits is courted by a "Romeo" in a Giulietta (Spider), a double play on words.

• Michael Caine in Robert Parrish's 1974 film The Marseille Contract where John Deray (Michael Caine) makes a race in an Alfa Romeo Montreal in the French mountains of the provence with a Porsche 911 conducted by a girl. There is no winner at the end, but the scenes are authentic and nice.

• Edward Fox's character, the titular Jackal, in 1973's The Day of the Jackal drives a white Giulietta Spider. He repaints the car blue in a forest clearing to avoid police, then crashes the car.

• Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in The Godfather drove a black Alfa Romeo 6C while in exile in Sicily. This was actually the car that was booby-trapped and explodes with Apollonia, his Sicilian wife, in it.

• Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) gave his daughter a black 2600 Touring Spider on her 16th birthday in the 2002 movie S1m0ne.

• John Malkovich, as Tom Ripley, in Ripley's Game, drives a red Alfa Romeo 156 Sportwagon.

• The 1982 film The Soldier featured an Alfa Romeo Alfetta sedan as a getaway vehicle.

Television

• In the television crime film series Ein Fall für Zwei ("a case for two", over 250 episodes made so far), the leading actor Claus Theo Gärtner, who plays the role of the private detective Josef Matula, has always been driving Alfa Romeo, starting from Giulia Super to the latest Alfa Romeo models.

• Alfa Romeo had also a "role" in the Austrian detective series Kommissar Rex (Inspector Rex). At the beginning, Tobias Moretti drove a 155 and later Gedeon Burkhard drove a 166.

Top Gear

In recent times, the BBC 2 Series 'Top Gear' has had quite an impact on the popular conception of the Alfa Romeo. Presenter Jeremy Clarkson insists that "nobody can call themselves a true petrolhead" until they have owned one.

Literature

In the first printing of Dan Brown's novel Angels & Demons, the members of the Swiss Guard all drive Alfa Romeo sedans (albeit inaccurately referred to as 'Alpha Romeos' throughout the book).

In the Ian Fleming novel Moonraker, James Bond becomes involved in an impromptu race with a young man driving an Alfa Romeo while he pursues Hugo Drax. This scene in the novel results in the death of the young man, the destruction of his car, and the eventual destruction of Bond's Bentley Mark IV.