I celebrated the 84th birthday anniversary of director Ridley Scott by watching his latest production, ‘House of Gucci‘. It is the second premiere of a film of his in two months, which demonstrates the vitality and desire to make films of the director. Apart from the presence of Adam Driver in the cast, it is a very different film from ‘The Last Duel‘. In fact, this is one of the characteristics of his career. His films are different from each other in terms of theme and genre. One can never predict what Ridley Scott‘s next film will be about. But it can always be assumed that it will be a quality film, an interesting and well-filmed story, a film that will attract talented and prestigious actors. ‘House of Gucci‘ is no exception from these points of view. With a formidable cast and a passionate story, inspired by real events that took place in the fashion empire that is the House of Gucci, a story that combines luxury, passion and crime, ‘House of Gucci‘ did not disappoint me at all .
I confess that I am very little interested and almost completely ignorant in terms of fashion and big fashion houses. ‘House of Gucci describes exactly the history of such an institution, but fortunately for me it is less about the aesthetics of fashion, although the film tries to say something about the conflicts between the classic lines and modernity, between the unique pieces designed to satisfy the fantasies of the world’s rich and mass production, as well as about the fate of the family businesses in an extremely competitive economy in which almost any means excuses the purposes of commercial success and profitability. However, the focus is on the family relationships between brothers Aldo (Al Pacino) and Rodolfo Gucci (Jeremy Irons) who had inherited and developed the business founded by their father and ran it together in the ’80s, and their sons Maurizio (Adam Driver) and Paolo ( Jared Leto). In the family also enters Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) whose relationship with Maurizio seems at first to be a beautiful love story that breaks down social barriers. However, the family conflicts and the personal relations between the five characters will take a dramatic turn.
Ridley Scott knows how to bring complex stories to screen and to nail in chairs his spectators in movies that last more than two and a half hours. This succeeds in this case as well. ‘House of Gucci‘ is fluent and cinematically consistent. The distribution is top notch and only the sequence of names on the generic would be enough to justify paying the admission ticket. The acting performance that seemed extraordinary to me is that of Lady Gaga. I had greatly appreciated her acting performance in ‘A Star Is Born‘ and hoped that she would confirm her value as an actress even in movies where she does not sing. My expectations were met. In the role here,Lady Gaga proves that she is a formidable actress, who brings life to the characters she enters, who creates roles different from each other and especially from the one she plays in life. Her Patrizia Reggiani, the beautiful, lovingly, ambitious, unscrupulous girl from the people, reminded me all the time while watching Anna Magnani. Al Pacino is also excellent in a consistent role of a character who goes through upheavals of destiny. We can only regret that Jeremy Irons does not have an equally solid role, but the time we see him on screen is a delight. Salma Hayek also shows up in a supporting role, one of her most interesting lately. Turning to the disappointments, I start with Adam Driver, who for the first time after many movies puzzled me, seemed more indecisive than his hero and failed to clarify who was this character who climbs to the top of the pyramid constantly looking like he wants to be somewhere else and do something else. Finally, Jared Leto seemed to me to exaggerate in the transformations of physiognomy and in the comic features that he attributed to his character.
This film could very well have been an Italian film, the language in which most dialogues are supposed to take place. Does it lose credibility by being spoken English sometimes adding, not very justified I would say, Italian accents to the English spoken by some characters. Of course, the Italian film would have been very interesting, but it would have had a different perspective, and I think the issue of authenticity is a false one. A movie is a movie. Ultimately, we don’t care if ‘Spartacus‘ should have been played in Latin or ‘The Last Duel‘ in medieval French. ‘House of Gucci‘ is a great studios film that takes place mostly in Italy and which does not try to pretend that it is something else. I think we’re lucky to have Ridley Scott with us in the ninth decade of his life, full of energy and desire to make movies. Let’s enjoy him!