Blade Runner, but he has explored other genres as well, such as buddy cop with Thelma & Louise and historical drama with Gladiator. For House of Gucci, Scott went back to the genre of biographical crime drama, which although interesting, can also be controversial.
Based on the book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden, House of Gucci centers on Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) and Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), with the former marrying the latter and through that making her way into the dynastic Italian luxury label. However, the real power of the Gucci empire is held by Maurizio’s father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) and his uncle Aldo (Al Pacino), and if Patrizia wants to make her presence felt, she will have to pit the rest of the family against each other. Patrizia and Maurizio eventually find themselves at odds, and her rage ends up turning murderous.
As mentioned above, House of Gucci is based on a true story: that of the murder of Maurizio Gucci as planned by his ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani back in 1995. Given the importance of the Gucci brand, its history, and that Reggiani is still alive, it was almost inevitable that House of Gucci was going to draw controversy, and it started even before the movie came out. In January 2021, Reggiani expressed her approval of Gaga portraying her, but in another interview in March, she shared her discontent towards Gaga not ing her to meet, stating it wasn’t about money but “a question of good sense and respect”. It was later revealed that the producers of House of Gucci didn’t want Gaga to meet Reggiani, with Gaga herself later sharing that she didn’t want any outside opinions to influence her portrayal and had no interest in “colluding” with her.
Of course, Reggiani isn’t the only one who has expressed her thoughts and feelings about her story being adapted to the big screen – the Gucci family also had a couple of things to say. Speaking to The Associated Press in April 2021, Patricia Gucci – Aldo Gucci’s daughter and Maurizio’s cousin – shared that the Gucci family are disappointed by the film, as Scott and company “are stealing the identity of a family to make a profit, to increase the income of the Hollywood system”, and that their family has “an identity, privacy”, and while they can talk about everything, “there is a borderline that cannot be crossed”. Patricia Gucci added that she reached out to Giannina Facio, House of Gucci producer and Scott’s wife, for clarification, but hadn’t received a reply, which comes out as odd given that Facio met with of the Gucci family in the early 2000s to talk about a project focused on Paolo and Aldo Gucci. In addition to that, the Gucci family's concerns were also the casting of top actors to play family who had no connection to the murder and the inaccuracies in the book the movie is based on, and stated the family will decide their next course of action once they watch the final product.
House of Gucci is out, the family will surely have more to say and all eyes will be on their next move, as well as how Ridley Scott and the cast will react to what the Gucci family decides to do.
