‘Father, Son and House of Gucci’: Lady Gaga is magnificent in explosive ‘House of Gucci’

Another House of Gucci trailer dropped over the weekend and, as expected, it’s left us wanting more. Showing Lady Gaga and Adam Driver as former couple Patrizia Reggiani and Maurizio Gucci, it details how the family had it all – wealth, style, power. “Who wouldn’t kill for that?” Gaga ponders. 

He was the head of the Gucci fashion house, she, his ex-wife – a wealthy Italian socialite and high fashion personality. When married, they became one of the world’s first celebrity power couples. Things soon went awry though and the film deals with the aftermath of Maurizio’s death after Patrizia hired a hitman to kill him in 1995. 

Inspired by Sarah Forden’s book, The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed, the movie is in very capable hands with renowned director Ridley Scott at its helm. It has quite a supporting cast too, also starring Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek, Jack Huston, Reeve Carney and Jeremy Irons.

Following on from her Oscar-nominated run opposite Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born, the second trailer for the highly anticipated House of Gucci movie opens with the singer-turned-actress saying, “I don’t consider myself a particularly ethical person, but I’m fair.” 

Cut to her talking of her former husband’s family and a name that sounded “so sweet, so seductive”.  Much darker than the first trailer, this one also gives viewers a glimpse into Patrizia’s first meeting with the hitman – her parting words to whom are, “Don’t miss.”

“I met Maurizio at a party and he fell madly in love with me. I was exciting and different,” said Reggiani. The pair married in 1972 when they were both 24.

What really happened?

The events that took place were stranger-than-fiction, and so they naturally made for a book and film adaptation: Reggiani was convicted in 1998 of ordering her former husband Maurizio Gucci’s murder. The pair had split in 1985. Gucci was shot in 1995 outside his office in Milan.

Reggiani was sentenced to 29 years in prison, later reduced to 26 years on appeal. She was released in 2016 and told The Observer in a profile: “I think I am a very strong person because I survived all these years in captivity. I slept a lot. I took care of my plants. I looked after Bambi, my pet ferret.”  The former socialite had also always maintained her innocence – her best friend had set her up, she said. As for her motive? As per the prosecutors, it was a bit of everything: jealously, financial reasons, and resentment towards her ex-husband (who had left her for a younger woman to raise their two daughters alone).

Quite simply, it is a story made for the big screen.

And the project has backing from the brand itself (despite them so eager to avoid the scandal when it happened initially), so expect serious, on-point fashion throughout. Gucci president and chief executive officer Marco Bizzarri confirmed to WWD the Italian luxury label has opened its archives and given “total creative freedom” to House of Gucci production.

A new trailer, sweeties ? #HouseOfGucci – only in theaters This Thanksgiving pic.twitter.com/4zVhazUo2N

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) October 28, 2021

“Gucci is collaborating with MGM and Scott Free Productions by providing access to the house’s historical archive for wardrobe and props,” Bizzarri, who noted that the Gucci family is no longer involved with the brand today, told WWD.

House of Gucci is set to hit Irish cinemas on November 26, 2021.