The heirs to the Gucci fashion brand have shown their dissatisfaction over the portrayal of their family in film, House of Gucci. Former Gucci chairman Aldo Gucci’s family hinted Monday at legal action against Ridley Scott’s new film, claiming the film represented the family as a bunch of “thugs.”
Talking to media the family said “This is extremely painful from a human point of view and an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today”.
The movie stars Lady Gaga playing Patrizia Reggiani, an Italian socialite who masterminded a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver). Reggiani served 18 years in jail in real life.
During the press tour for the film, the heirs expressed their displeasure with the film, claiming that their family was shown “as thugs, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them.”
The family cliams that the production “did not bother to consult the heirs,” accusing the producers of giving the protagonists of well-known events “a tone and an attitude that never belonged to them.”
The statement read, “Although the work claims to want to tell the ‘true story’ of the family, the fears raised by the trailers and interviews released so far, are confirmed. The film carries a narrative that is far from accurate”.
The Gucci family is chastising more than only the film’s producers. Gaga was also chastised for portraying Reggiani as a “victim,” which includes comments she made about her role during promotional interviews.
In an interview, Gaga said, “There was a lot that was in the media that was sensationalized about how she was this gold-digger and how she killed for greed and money. I believe it was love. And I believe it was survival.”
Gaga admitted she “didn’t want to meet [Patrizia] because [she] could tell very quickly that this woman wanted to be glorified for this murder and she wanted to be remembered as this criminal…I didn’t want to collude with something that I don’t believe in. She did have her husband murdered.”
According to a statement released on Monday, the family found it “mystifying” that a lady convicted of murdering her ex-husband would be presented as “a victim trying to survive in a male corporate culture”. The statement that the, the Gucci business has always been “inclusive,” and that several of Gucci’s top positions, including the president of Gucci America and the director of worldwide public relations and communication, were held by women throughout the 1980s, the decade in which the film is set.
Despite the fact that no legal action has been taken against the film to far, the statement concluded that “the members of the Gucci family reserve the right to take action to protect the name, image and dignity of themselves and their loved ones.”
