Members of the Gucci family slammed the director of the film House of Gucci, Ridley Scott, for the depiction of its members in the film. Former company chairman, Aldo Gucci’s heirs threatened to take legal action against Scott for ‘ignorant and insensitive’ portrayal of the family according to a statement published by ANSA.
House of Gucci which had its world premiere on November 24, featured Lady Gaga, Al Pacino, Adam Driver and Jared Leto. The film is based on the murder of Maurizio Gucci (played by Driver), the former head of the international luxury brand Gucci, who was shot dead in 1995 by a hitman hired by his former wife, Patrizia Reggiani (played by Lady Gaga). Reggiani was convicted of arranging his murder in 1998. She served 18 years in a prison in Milan before being released in 2016.
“The Gucci family reserves the right to take every initiative (necessary) to protect their name and image and those of their loved ones,” said a letter signed by Aldo Gucci’s heirs.
The family took particular issue with the depiction of Reggiani, “a woman definitively convicted of ordering the murder of Maurizio Gucci… as a victim” in both the movie and in statements by cast members.
It also said that members of the Gucci family were falsely portrayed as “hooligans” who were “ignorant and insensitive to the world that surrounded them”.
While it is unclear from the source as to which family members filed the collective statement, the family criticised the film earlier as well.
In April, one of Maurizio’s second cousins and Aldo Gucci’s granddaughter, Patrizia Gucci, slammed the film, for “stealing the identity of a family to make a profit” and going “beyond the headline-grabbing true-crime star and pries into the private lives of Guccio Gucci heirs.”
Scott’s film is adapted from Sara Gay Forden’s book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour and Greed. The synopsis of the book on Goodreads calls it “one of glitz, glamour, intrigue, the rise, near fall and subsequent resurgence of a fashion dynasty”.
While Pacino played Aldo Gucci, who expanded Gucci and opened stores in Rome and New York; Leto played Paolo Gucci, the brain behind the logo of the Italian brand named after the founder Guccio Gucci.
Patrizia took offense in the depiction of Aldo Gucci, who “was a very handsome man, like all the Guccis, and very tall, blue eyes and very elegant,” and called Pacino’s representation ugly.
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Aldo was chairman of all Gucci shops from 1953 to 1986, according to a report by The Sun, and is responsible for the brand’s global reach.
According to a report by The Associated Press, production banner MGM did not approach the family regarding the film. While Patrizia Gucci tried contacting Scott’s wife, Giannina Facio, she had not received a reply. Facio had earlier approached Pablo and Aldo in the 2000s regarding a project that would have focused on them and the rise of the luxury brand.
The Gucci brand has not been managed by the family after Maurizio Gucci sold its remaining stakes to Investcorp in 1993. It was later bought by the French company PPR, now known as Kering.