HOUSE OF GUCCI

US, 2021, 158 minutes, Colour.

Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto, Jack Huston, Salma Hayek, Camille Cottin, Reeve Carney.

Directed by Ridley Scott.

House of Gucci, House of Versace, Italian fashion houses with violence in their history. (Not quite like the histories of the French Houses of Fashion.)

Ridley Scott, filming at the age of 83, with a celebrated wide variety of film topics (just remembering Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator) directed two films for 2021 release, the intriguing The Last Duel and the Middle Ages, and an immersion in Italian families’ fashion with the Guccis.

Immersion – 158 minutes of living with the Guccis who are not always good company. They might have been good company, running a solid company, but there is always human nature and Italian passion.

The cast, of course, is an impressive lineup. Adam Driver, villain of The Last Duel, plays Maurizio Gucci, brought up in luxury, but rather unprepossessing at first, studying law, attracted by the flirtatious and oncoming Patrizia Reggianni. It would seem that for most of the film he is the good guy! But, there is that human nature factor again as he assumes arrogance and is destined for a fall, in terms of the role of CEO but, then for vengeful vendetta, target of a hit in the streets.

Researching any history of the Gucci family will quickly reveal that it is Patrizia whose desperate story this is. Ambitious daughter of the head of a trucking company, she sets her sights on Maurizio, is dismissed by Maurizio’s father, the aristocratic former screen star, Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) as a golddigger. At this stage, especially when the couple marry, and Maurizio was cut off by his father and works in his wife’s father’s trucking company, that she is not quite the golddigger we could have imagined.

But she is. And more. And, it is a tribute to Lady Gaga, who does not have a large list of screen roles, but prominent in the 21^st-century interpretation of A Star is Born, that she comes across as a woman who is determined, takes opportunities, sets family members against each other, tries to take control, becomes entangled with family disputes (some of which she engineers), but ultimately does not have the power to achieve her goals. And she takes refuge in a television personality who foretells the future, Pina (Salma Hayek) becoming more and more dependent on her, even to arranging the hitman and the financial deal for the death of her husband.

And, there is a subplot involving Rodolfo’s brother who acts as the CEO of the fashion company, uncle Aldo, played by Al Pacino (as he turned 80). Then there is his bizarre son, Paolo, a heavily made up an unrecognisable Jared Leto, who is mocked by the rest of the family, considered an idiot by his father, but who is desperate to make an impression in the family and to find a place in the House of Gucci.

More than enough ingredients, one might say, but, in fact, the first five years of the marriage is played out in quite some detail but, after that, the next 12 years or more seem to be hurried through, rather difficult to know what is happening year by year because some of the developments in the screenplay are rather more sweeping.

There is a lot of information at the end of the film about what happened to the conspirators (tried and condemned to prison), the fact that there is no Gucci family member part of the current company (developed by Rodolfo Gucci’s assistant, Domenico De Sole, Jack Huston, with the help of the up-and-coming designer, Tom Ford, who is still there).

So, an Italian tale of intrigue and ambition and murder as vengeance. A fall of the House of Gucci and its self-destruction.

1. The film? A period of 20 years? The house of Gucci? Reputation, leaders, politics, greed, vengeance, manipulation? Portraits of the chief characters?
2. 1978, Milan, social life, the Gucci family, the company? The 1980s, expansion of the company, struggles for leadership? The 1990s, international changes, the family members, Maurizio and his leadership, Patrizia Regianni and her vengeance?
3. The musical score, the range of songs of the period, the Opera excerpts?
4. The focus on Patrizia, 25, self-image, flirtatious, working in her father’s office, the invitation to the party, setting her sights on Maurizio, insisting, his response, the dancing, her calculating to meet him in the library, seeming innocence, her phone number on the motorbike? Their meeting, time together, his response, her being in love? Calculating? The visit to his father, his father’s courtesy but condemning her as a golddigger?
5. The wedding, the celebration, his father’s absence? The link with Uncle Aldo, his role in the business, 50% share, his practical running of the business? Paolo, considered foolish, his look, manner, his wife, his ambitions, showing his designs to Rodolfo and Rodolfo ridiculing in? The tensions with his father?
6. Maurizio, born into wealth, studying law, his quiet manner, the response to Patrizia, in love, sharing, the visit to his father and his father’s condemnation? Willing to be cut off financially? Enjoying his work at the trucking company? The wedding? His bond with his uncle? Clashes with Paolo?
7. Patrizia, the birth of their daughter, her ambitions, taking greater interest in the firm, the background of her father’s trucking business? Her beginning to manipulate? The contact with Aldo, his spoiling her, the bag, clothes? The incident with the invitations, her disgust, Maurizio’s response, Aldo defending the cheap knockoffs and people enjoying allegedly having Gucci?
8. Aldo, jovial, head of the firm, his disdain for Paolo but still loving him, the attraction to Patrizia and her enterprise? His lifestyle, the farm and the cattle? Pride in the company? The background of fraud, his being reported to the authorities, his arrest and humiliation, jail? Coming out of prison, the link with Paolo, the shares in the company sold, his angry signing things away?
9. Paolo, ambitions, ineffectual, strange personality, with the members of the family, with his father, his being tricked, the runway episode, his wife singing, the authorities coming, the exhibition stopped?
10. The years passing, Patrizia and her involvement, the pressure on Maurizio? The authorities, Maurizio escaping to Switzerland, Patrizia later joining him? The attraction to Paola? The alienation between the two, Maurizio and the pressure from Patrizia, taking more interest in the company, relying on Domenico, Patrizia’s attitude towards Domenico? His being the confidante of Rodolfo?
11. Maurizio, running the company, ideas, discussions with Tom Ford and his designs, the runway, success, acclaim? But the business meeting, the partners, German background, financial difficulties, Maurizio’s optimistic assessment? Decisions, the takeover?
12. Patrizia, seeing Pina on the television, ringing her, asking her fortune, the later meetings, the advice, Pina and her dependence on Patrizia? The bad prophecies? Patrizia, commissioning the hit on Maurizio, the thugs coming, the money dealings, Pina’s involvement? The occasion, Maurizio in the building, the shooters, his death?
13. Patrizia, after his event, ousting Paola from the house, taking over – and in the news, two years later, the arrests, the trial, the sentences?
14. The rise and fall of the House of Gucci?