HOUSE OF GUCCI
Part I
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Lady Gaga; Adam Driver; Jared Leto; Jeremy Irons; Salma Hayek; Al Pacino
Story by: Becky Johnston
Based on: The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed; by Sara Gay Forden
It all begins when Patrizia Reggiani [played by Lady Gaga] the daughter of the owner of an Italian truck company, attends a party in Milan. When she is thirsty for a drink and heads to the bar, she meets Maurizio [played by Adam Driver] who is standing behind the counter. Maurizio, who is a tall, geeky student of law, looks too shy to be a bartender. It doesn't take too long till Patrizia realizes the nerdy young man she is talking to belongs to the House of GUCCI, which runs the worldwide fashion empire.
Maurizio Gucci, the son of Rodolfo Gucci, who owns half of the company's share and is the eldest in the Gucci family, falls in love with Patrizia. When Maurizio tells his father that he intends to marry the love of his life, Rodolfo disagrees and says: "She belongs to truckers family[her father owns a transportation company] and we are Guccis". He believes Patrizia, who comes from a lower-class family, is a gold digger and an opportunist who is taking advantage of Maurizio's simpleness and wants to find her way into the Gucci empire this way. As they are sitting in an enormous room, filled with mannequins and designs, Maurizio tells his father:" If you have lived your life with these fabric ghosts, it doesn't mean I have to do the same thing."
Rodolfo threatens he will take him off his will and eventually, Maurizio packs his bags and leaves House of Gucci and joins his lover's business and starts doing a labor job in the truck company.
We are not done even with Act I of the story here. It all begins when Maurizio's uncle, Aldo Gucci [played by Al Pacino] walks in. Unlike his brother, Aldo likes Patrizia and treats her as family, and as his wedding gift, he invites the newlywed couple to New York to visit Gucci's branch in the US.
The Italian mansion garden houses and villas, a rich and well-known family, characters speaking English in an Italian accent, remind me of the acclaimed Godfather movies. However, there is a big difference here. Al Pacino was the lead actor in Godfather and won the Oscar for it, but in this movie, he is the supporting actor and Lady Gaga is the lead actress and the star of the show. It's actually Patrizia's character in the story who leads all the events and creates significant changes in Gucci's family relations that eventually end up in being imprisoned, losing wealth, and getting murdered.
Aldo has a son, Paolo, who is not approved by his father in many levels. He has been trying hard to be a lead designer in Gucci but his work is not taken serious and his uncle, Rodolfo, calls tells him that mediocrity has no place in Gucci's business. Paolo who had been ignored for a very long time has a grudge against his father and this is where Patrizia finds her point of entry. She had made her way into the family, but now she needs someone who makes a big mess so that she and her husband take control of everything. But the turn of events puts her on a path that she could never predict.
To be continued.....