(Paris) Lady Gaga sublimated as a “black widow” of one of the iconic houses of Italian fashion: in House of Gucci, in theaters Wednesday in Canada and the United States, Ridley Scott offers himself a luxury cast to turn a news item into an ancient tragedy combining love, glory and betrayal.
Machine to create cult works (Blade runner, Alien, Gladiator, Thelma and Louise…), Ridley Scott delivers his last opus a month after the previous one, The Last Duel.
He takes up one of the most resounding news items in Italy in the 1990s: the assassination of Maurizio Gucci, heir to the Italian house, commissioned by his ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani.
A cold revenge after years of marriage and ascent in the world of luxury, alongside the fall of a large family house, sold to a financial group.
If the film was made without consulting the one we called the “black widow”, released from prison eight years ago, it seems to have received the approval of Gucci which now belongs to the Kering group, led by François -Henri Pinault. The brand’s bags and accessories appear countless times on the screen. Actress Salma Hayek, Mme Pinault in the city, plays in the film the role of a clairvoyant, accomplice in the crime.
From Al Pacino to Camille Cottin
Ridley Scott, who started out in advertising, places in his sets and opulent costumes what is done most attractive in Hollywood: Adam Driver plays Maurizio Gucci, Al Pacino infuses a little of the spirit of the “Godfather”, interpreting the generation that will hand over alongside Jeremy Irons, and Jared Leto is transformed (with several hours of daily makeup) into Paolo Gucci, the unloved of the family, who will end up ruined.
The French Camille Cottin is also at the rendezvous in the skin of Paola Franchi, who will seduce Maurizio Gucci and will trigger the fury and the fall of Patrizia.
Not necessarily the most talkative role of her career (she only appears in the last part of the film), but by far the most glamorous – “it was a lot of fun to be thrown into the Italian jet-set world.” from the 1980s! “, Explained to AFP the one that the series Ten percent (Call my agent in English) became known in the United States.
Above all, global pop star Lady Gaga is consolidating her status as a full-fledged actress, two years after being nominated at the Oscars for A star is Born. She had won the statuette… for the best song.
The cat, the fox and the panther
Brunette in the film, she tints her English with a strong Italian accent to play an elusive Patrizia Reggiani, the daughter of a small boss probably linked to the Mafia, manipulative to the extreme.
Since their meeting until the betrayal and the fall, while passing by the years at the top of Italian luxury, Lady Gaga explains having wanted “to create (her) own character”, without a priori on the real Patrizia Reggiani.
“I worked with three different animals” throughout this tragic story of social rise, she explained at a press conference.
At first, when Patrizia met Maurizio, “I was a house cat”. Then, in the middle of the movie, when Patrizia becomes all-powerful, “I was a fox. I studied how foxes hunt, they are very playful. And finally I studied the panthers […] watching a lot of videos. To hunt, panthers seduce, in a way. Then they leap ”.
In the role of the prey, Adam Driver (also at ease this year at Leos Carax in Annette that already in Ridley Scott as a knight guilty of rape in The Last Duel), has no choice but to suffer.
Because for Patrizia, from a modest background, “Gucci was a way of surviving. It was an opportunity to count, in a way she had never counted in her life, ”analyzes Lady Gaga.