Ridley Scott signs a tacky and elegant soap opera at the same time that has as main attractions the interpretive spreading and the costumes
About to turn 84, Ridley Scott is allowed to release in theaters two films in a row. After ‘The Last Duel’ comes ‘The Gucci House’, a luxurious soap opera with a heart attack cast in which Lady Gaga shines as Patrizia Reggiani, Maurizio Gucci’s wife sentenced to 26 years in prison for having hired a hit man to assassinate him in nineteen ninety five.
Luxury and moral misery intermingle in a film that does not save any of its characters. Joining the interpretive festival of an unrecognizable Jared Leto, Al Pacino, Adam Driver and Jeremy Irons is the scattering in the wardrobe section of a story that starts at the end of the 70s, when the Italian fashion empire was dying in charge of two sons of Guccio Gucci (Pacino and Irons). Alliances, deceptions, adulteries and even a cunning fortune teller played by Salma Hayek parade in a film based on a book with the eloquent title: ‘The Gucci House: A sensational story of murder, madness, glamor and greed’.
Recreating the mythical Studio 54 nightclub without leaving Rome is one of the merits of a film in which clothing is essential. The Lady Gaga character alone wears 70 outfits, some from Gucci’s historical inventory. The actress knows she has a hottie on her hands, a charismatic villain, a Lady Macbeth in designer clothes in an elegant and tacky melodrama at the same time, closer to ‘Dynasty’ than to Shakespeare.
.