House of Gucci | Dir: Ridley Scott | ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Directed by 84 year old Ridley Scott whose contribution to film classics include Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and The Martian, House of Gucci is an extravagant recreation of the shocking true story of the downfall of the family behind the Italian fashion empire.
According to the non-fiction book of the same name by Sara Gay Forden, family is very important to the Gucci clan, whose fashion empire was founded in 1921 by Guccio Gucci, a former bell-hop who began creating quality leather goods. After the war, Guccio Gucci distributed the shares of the company to his three sons Aldo, Vasco, Rodolfo but Vasco died in 1947.
The film begins in 1978 when Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) meets Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) at an exclusive party. Working at her father’s trucking business, she pursues the shy law student who isn’t that interested in the fashion business owned by the aging brothers – his father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) and his uncle Aldo (Al Pacino).
Rodolfo thinks Patrizia is a gold-digger and is against the marriage but she becomes the driving force behind Maurizio becoming involved in the family business and Lady Gaga chews up every scene she is in. The actual Patrizia said in a 2016 interview in The Guardian that she and Maurizio were a beautiful couple who had a beautiful life, and the film captures this.
Jared Leto is getting a lot of attention for his portrayal of Aldo’s son Paulo, who is the black sheep of the designer family because he wanted to mix brown with pastels. I thought that the fat suit and all the prosthetics made his character more of a caricature of the Gucci who was badly done by even though he designed the famous logo.
The film is an incredibly entertaining soap opera, each scene delighting with spectacular locations and stunning fashion. Throw in some family betrayals, a bit of tax evasion, behind doors scheming and an affair to divide loyalties. Emotions run high when the stakes are so large and most people would know that there is even a murder to make this true-life drama more salacious.
Lezly Herbert
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