Here in Australia, we are still eagerly awaiting the release of House of Gucci, starring Adam Driver and Lady Gaga, but the film has already been out for a week in the US and the Gucci family is not happy.
Gaga and Driver are joined by Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino in the film, directed by Ridley Scott, which explores the true story of Patrizia Reggiani, an Italian socialite who was convicted for hiring a hitman to kill her ex-husband Maurizio Gucci and spent 18 years in prison for the crime.
However, in the eyes of the Gucci family, the film makes Reggiani out to be the victim and said in a statement that they find it “mystifying” that a woman convicted of hiring an assassin to end her husband’s life could be portrayed as though they were merely “trying to survive in a male chauvinist corporate culture”.
The heirs argue that Gucci, in fact, was a highly “an inclusive company” during its 70-year history with several women in senior positions during the 1980s which is when the movie is mostly set.
The statement also said that the film assigns “a tone and an attitude to the protagonists of the well-known events that never belonged to them.”
It continues, “This is extremely painful from a human point of view and an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today.”
“The Gucci family reserve the right to take every initiative (necessary) to protect their name and image and those of their loved ones,” the heirs of former Gucci chairman Aldo Gucci said in a statement, while also claiming that Scott and the producers of the film did not consult with them before portraying their family members as “thugs, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them.”
The film has previously been lambasted by a member of the high profile fashion family with Patrizia Gucci, the daughter of Aldo Gucci (played by Al Pacino in the film) accusing Scott of “stealing the identity of a family to make a profit to increase the income of the Hollywood system.”
Scott waved away the criticism during an interview with BBC Radio in which he retorted, “I don’t engage with that. You have to remember that one Gucci was murdered and another went to jail for tax evasion so you can’t be talking to me about making a profit. As soon as you do that you become part of the public domain.”
House of Gucci will be showing at HOYTS Cinemas from January 1, 2022.
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