What is it about Italian Fashion Houses? It seems to end up in murder.
Ridley Scott's House of Gucci charts the turmoil in the Gucci brand. This is a real life version of Succession. In fact after having watched Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare is the best source here.
Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) is the humble outsider. A father runs a trucking company in Milan, something that might be associated with gangsters.
Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) is the bookish lawyer who finds him ostracised by his father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) when he marries her. Rodolfo is a former actor and half owner of the Gucci fashion brand and regards Patrizia as a gold digger.
The company is operated by Uncle Aldo (Al Pacino) who brings Maurizio in from the cold. Aldo hopes that his influence on the couple would be useful after Rodolfo's death.
Also's own son Paolo (Jared Leto) is a bit of an imbecile and regarded by everyone with disdain.
The set up enables allows Patrizia to do her best Lady Macbeth act with the help of a flaky psychic. After the death of Rodolfo, she manipulates Maurizio to take over control of the company. Aldo is jailed for tax fraud and Paolo is just too dim to realise that he is being played.
However eventually Maurizio tires of his grasping wife and feels guilty about stabbing his family in the back. So guilty he does it all over again.
The film is loosely based on true facts. At times I was lost regarding when the events took place because the soundtrack was mainly from the 1980s.
Scott though has directed the film with a mismatch of styles. It ranges from a straight drama with Driver giving an understated performance. To wildly kitsch with Leto being so outlandish, even Pacino cannot match him.
Maybe Scott should had produced this as a longer mini series. House of Gucci as a movie could had worked better as a shorter shallow bitter cynical satirical movie that veered on high camp.
Ridley Scott's House of Gucci charts the turmoil in the Gucci brand. This is a real life version of Succession. In fact after having watched Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare is the best source here.
Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) is the humble outsider. A father runs a trucking company in Milan, something that might be associated with gangsters.
Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) is the bookish lawyer who finds him ostracised by his father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) when he marries her. Rodolfo is a former actor and half owner of the Gucci fashion brand and regards Patrizia as a gold digger.
The company is operated by Uncle Aldo (Al Pacino) who brings Maurizio in from the cold. Aldo hopes that his influence on the couple would be useful after Rodolfo's death.
Also's own son Paolo (Jared Leto) is a bit of an imbecile and regarded by everyone with disdain.
The set up enables allows Patrizia to do her best Lady Macbeth act with the help of a flaky psychic. After the death of Rodolfo, she manipulates Maurizio to take over control of the company. Aldo is jailed for tax fraud and Paolo is just too dim to realise that he is being played.
However eventually Maurizio tires of his grasping wife and feels guilty about stabbing his family in the back. So guilty he does it all over again.
The film is loosely based on true facts. At times I was lost regarding when the events took place because the soundtrack was mainly from the 1980s.
Scott though has directed the film with a mismatch of styles. It ranges from a straight drama with Driver giving an understated performance. To wildly kitsch with Leto being so outlandish, even Pacino cannot match him.
Maybe Scott should had produced this as a longer mini series. House of Gucci as a movie could had worked better as a shorter shallow bitter cynical satirical movie that veered on high camp.