On March 27, 1995 in Milan, Maurizio Gucci was shot dead in front of the offices of the famous haute couture house, once founded by his grandfather. After a resounding trial, his ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani was found guilty of having ordered the assassination. Directed by Ridley Scott, House of Gucci (The Gucci saga) looks back on the events leading up to the tragedy. This opulent production also confirms the recent fascination, in cinema, in series and on podcasts, for so-called criminal cases “ true crime “.
Written by neophyte Roberto Bentivegna and veteran Becky Johnston, behind The Prince of Tides (The Prince of Tides) and Seven Years in Tibet (Seven Years in Tibet), the film could be summed up as follows: love, rise and fall.
Employed by her father’s transport company, Patrizia (Lady Gaga) accidentally meets Maurizio (Adam Driver) at a private party. When she hears the name Gucci, her gaze comes alive: money, prestige, power… Shortly after, she follows Maurizio, provokes a “fortuitous” meeting and initiates a first date. From the outset, she is the one who leads the game.
After their marriage, like a Lady Macbeth, Patrizia causes an internal war within the clan to ensure the coronation of Maurizio, who does not say a word but consents. Uncle Aldo Gucci (Al Pacino) and his son Paolo (Jared Leto) will be used and then discarded.
This second act, the most overtly Shakespearean, is the one that works best. The former is fine, but despite what the promotional hype is trying to sell, there is little chemistry between Lady Gaga and Adam Driver. We are certainly entitled to a hot love scene, but the rest of the time, we do not feel the electricity supposedly passing between the lovebirds.
Frustrating characters
The third act, after Patrizia’s shenanigans pay off and Maurizio gets bored of her, is the weakest. Far from accelerating the pace or raising the tension as the inevitable outcome approaches, the film breaks the rhythm by exploring not one, but two narrative avenues. On the one hand Maurizio faces more complications at Gucci, and on the other, Patrizia sinks into a spiral of jealousy. This last aspect should have dominated, given the subject.
Lady Gaga puts on a fabulous performance, but the character of Patrizia is frustrating. It is as if the authors had never managed to decide: is Patrizia a Machiavellian upstart, or a true rejected lover? We are entitled to both, but in an indecisive way. In real life, Patrizia Reggiani lived in poverty for up to 12 years before her mother married a successful businessman who adopted her: potentially psychologically revealing details that the film doesn’t even mention.
Ditto for Maurizio, who is first presented as a kind of Candide, then as a wise observer of his environment, then as a great naive again, then as a suddenly cruel being… The parts do not form a convincing whole. Equal to himself, Adam Driver nonetheless delivers a felt interpretation.
Uneven play
Alas, this is not the case with their partners, some of whom appear to evolve in a different film. While Lady Gaga and Adam Driver stick to a serious register, Jared Leto seems to play in a Feydeau. It is embarrassing. The immense Al Pacino is situated between the two, sometimes just, sometimes a bit of a joke. Too brief, Jeremy Irons has beautiful scenes in disapproving father of Maurizio.
House of Gucci is Ridley Scott’s second film in 2021 after Superior The Last Duel (The last duel). Gifted formalist from his beginnings as evidenced by The Duellists (The duelists), Alien and Blade runner, Scott has also been shown to be able to infuse baroque notes into his work, as evidenced by Legend (Legend) or Gladiator (Gladiator).
Given the extravagant nature of the characters and events at the heart of House of Gucci, this heightened aesthetic sensitivity and this capacity to transcend realism, unfortunately absent, would have been welcome. Ridley Scott’s staging turns out to be surprisingly mundane. The film is too.