[Review] House of Gucci: The True Story of a Fashion Murder (Director Ridley Scott, Starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver)

I wrote this article in Japanese and translated it into English using ChatGPT. I also used ChatGPT to create the English article title. I did my best to correct any translation mistakes, but please let me know if you find any errors. By the way, I did not use ChatGPT when writing the Japanese article. The entire article was written from scratch by me, Saikawa Goto.

Introduction

Movies and books covered in this article

I will write an article about this movie/book

Three takeaways from this article

To begin with, I didn’t even remember the fact that “a murder had occurred at GUCCI”, so it was a series of surprises.

Self-introduction article

Please refer to the self-introduction article above to learn about the person writing this article. Be sure to check out the Kindle book linked below as well.

The quotes used in this article are based on notes taken at the movie theater from movies in Japanese and are not direct quotes from the foreign language original movies, even if they exist.

I was Surprised by the Depiction of the Decline of the Global Brand GUCCI in the Movie “House of Gucci”

How was Such a Movie able to be Produced?

While watching the movie, I had a question that I kept thinking about. That is, “How could a movie that exposes the shameful parts of GUCCI be produced?” Brands like GUCCI are literally doing business with their “name,” so I thought it was unlikely that approval would be given for a movie that would tarnish the name of GUCCI. The shocking fact that “a murder case occurred in the GUCCI family” is depicted in the movie. The incident happened in 1995, and many people may have already forgotten about the fact itself. It’s hard to imagine that there was a necessity for GUCCI to do something like waking up a sleeping child.

The movie was probably filmed in actual GUCCI stores, and I think it’s a work that couldn’t be produced without GUCCI’s cooperation. On the other hand, I didn’t think there was any motivation for GUCCI to give permission for the movie production, so this question continued to linger in the back of my mind while watching the movie.

The answer can be understood by watching the movie until the end. I think this is probably a fact that is reasonably well known in general, so there should be no problem writing about it. It seems that no one from the founding family is involved in the current GUCCI. Knowing this, my doubts were finally resolved.

In other words, those who currently operate GUCCI have the advantage of showing that “the old GUCCI and the current GUCCI are different.” Of course, they wouldn’t spare any cooperation. It can be said that appealing to the “break with the GUCCI created by the founding family” is valuable precisely because they are in the business of selling by the “name.”

At the beginning of the movie, it says “a story inspired by true story.” When I first saw this, I thought it meant that there were parts that had been altered to consider GUCCI. However, my thinking changed after watching the movie until the end. I received that “a story inspired by true story” indicates the fact that “we have no choice but to supplement it with imagination.”

If I touch on it too much, it will become a spoiler for the movie, so I’ll write it vaguely, but it becomes clear that most of the main characters depicted were not “able to be talked about” at the time of the film’s production. Since there is no one who can tell us what happened, we have to fill in the blanks with our imagination.

After watching the movie, I happened to come across an internet article that said, “The GUCCI family is objecting to the content of this movie.” However, even if someone from the GUCCI family is objecting, they should not have witnessed the various situations depicted in the movie in real time. In other words, it can only be an appeal that “we don’t like being portrayed in that way.”

In the same article, Film director Ridley Scott was quoted as saying, “The original book is excellent, but it reflects the author’s strong opinions, so I interpreted it and produced it in my own way.” Anyway, since there is no one who can speak the “truth,” it ultimately becomes a matter of “interpretation.” And this movie should be seen as “a story interpreted by Ridley Scott.” It might be a good idea to understand this before watching the movie.

I remembered “Tsuburaya Productions” from the story that the founding family is not involved in management. “Tsuburaya Productions” was founded by Tsuburaya Eiji, known as the god of special effects, and has already become a company in which no one from the Tsuburaya family is involved. “ウルトラマンが泣いている(Ultraman is crying)” (Tsuburaya Hideaki/Kodansha), which depicts the aftermath, is also a quite shocking work.

When watching this movie, you can feel the difficulty of “same-family management”. However, on the other hand, when considering the concept of “brand”, I think “same-family management” is easier to understand.

What Defines “Brand”?

Personally, I have absolutely no interest in “brands”, regardless of whether they are luxury goods or not. When buying something, I consider things such as “function”, “price”, and “ease of acquisition”, but I have never cared about “brand”. Of course, if the function and price are the same, I may choose a company that I know the name of, and in cases where “safety” is emphasized, such as with cars and food, I may choose Japanese companies over foreign ones.

In other words, the concept of “brand” is not a big deal to me. That’s why I can’t really understand the value of “high-end brands” like GUCCI. And that “feelings I don’t understand” became more apparent as a question when I learned about the reality of “GUCCI excluding its founding family”.

For general products, the “value of the brand” is set as providing “better quality at a lower price” or producing and selling sustainably at a slightly higher price”. However, for “high-end brands” like GUCCI, there is no such easy-to-understand value. The quality may be high, but the price is extremely high and they likely didn’t have an SDGs perspective in the past.

In this case, what I can understand is the idea that “the value of a brand lies in the ‘something’ created by the founder”. I myself do not find value in it, but I can understand it. If the “value of the brand” exists in inheriting the founder’s vision and design, it is easy to understand.

Now, in that case, where do you think the “value of GUCCI without the founding family” lies? Who can declare “this is GUCCI”? Watching the movie, I had a lot of doubts about this point.

There is a scene in the movie where a member of the founding family says,

What I defined is GUCCI.

He is honestly a minor figure even among the founding family, and his claim in that position is quite a “outrageous argument.” However, I also think it is a word that is established precisely because the founding family is making such a claim. It would be difficult for anyone outside the founding family to refute this assertion.

In the case of GUCCI, where the founding family is no longer involved, how is the declaration “this is GUCCI” made? That point was very concerning. Ultimately, I think we have no choice but to move in the direction of “GUCCI that many people imagine is GUCCI.” But if that is the case, the question of “what is the value of a brand?” will only arise again.

“Brands” are still a very mysterious existence to me.

Content Introduction

Patrizia (played by Lady Gaga) is the daughter of a wealthy trucking family and usually helps her father at their dusty office located on a lot full of trucks. One day, she meets Maurizio Gucci (played by Adam Driver) at a party, but he quickly leaves at midnight. Later, Patrizia sees him in town and says, “Won’t you ask me out on a date?” They start dating.

Maurizio had been told by his father, Rodolfo Gucci, that he would give him everything related to GUCCI, but he was not interested in such things. After he starts dating Patrizia, he wants to live an ordinary life with her and runs away from his father, who strongly opposes their marriage. He then begins to work in Patrizia’s family business, a trucking company, and starts a new life with a goal of becoming a lawyer.

However, Patrizia is not a woman who can be satisfied with such a life. She was watching for a chance.

At the time, GUCCI was owned 50% each by Maurizio’s father Rodolfo and his brother Aldo Gucci. The two of them decided everything about GUCCI. Rodolfo was conservative and believed that preserving GUCCI’s traditions was the most valuable thing, while Aldo struggled to make GUCCI a global brand by actively promoting overseas expansion, including in New York.

While Maurizio was away from GUCCI, Rodolfo passed away, and Aldo, who was his uncle, approached him quickly. Although Aldo also had a son, he was “stupid and incompetent” even from a parental perspective and not a person who could be trusted to lead GUCCI. He wanted to bring his nephew Maurizio into the company in consideration of the future of GUCCI.

Maurizio was still hesitant to get involved with GUCCI. However, Patrizia, who had an immense obsession with money and power, teamed up with Aldo and succeeded in bringing Maurizio back to GUCCI.

However, Patrizia’s ambition knows no bounds. Now she plans to move Maurizio to eliminate Aldo, who worked hard to bring him back to GUCCI…

Impression

I didn’t know anything about GUCCI, so Maurizio was the most impressive to me. His stance of trying to live as an ordinary person away from GUCCI, despite being born into an outrageous “family business,” is really interesting. This could happen in various companies, regardless of whether you are born into a founding family. If what you want to do or the life you want to live is different, you don’t have to walk the predetermined path. However, I was very surprised at the decisiveness to easily abandon the choice of “inheriting GUCCI,” which could be said to be an exaggeration to say “everything can be obtained.” At one point before he returns to GUCCI, he utters the following.

Why do I need to change now, when I’m the happiest I’ve ever been?

As a result, he returned to GUCCI and faced the worst outcome, but Maurizio could have lived a life that was definitely not tragic. I also felt the frustration in that sense.

This movie features many famous actors that even I know, but I think Adam Driver is outstanding. He always impresses me with his various roles, and I think he’s a great actor along with Benedict Cumberbatch.

The film “House of Gucci” portrays the story of GUCCI over a period of 30 years, and Adam Driver also plays the role of a college student. According to my research, he was 38 years old at the time of the film’s release. I think it’s quite impressive that he can still pass as a college student in his 30s.

Lady Gaga’s presence was also impressive. Although her role as a clerical worker in the family business of transportation felt a bit awkward, I don’t think anyone can just put on the “luxury” vibe that came out after she started to become seriously involved with GUCCI. Also, she portrayed the feeling of having a secret and not knowing what she was thinking perfectly. Thanks to her, I think the film realistically portrayed how the GUCCI family was tossed around.

Personally, my favorite was Paolo, Aldo’s son who is treated as “stupid and incompetent.” I think he is an interesting character from a distance, although I think I would be frustrated if he were actually someone close to me.

Especially impressive was the scene where he is subjected to the biting words “you have reached the peak of mediocrity.” I am not sure what was intended to be conveyed in this scene, but at the very least, the fact that Paolo is treated very poorly comes across. Although he is very different from Maurizio in many ways, it made me feel that if Paolo had been born in a slightly different environment, he could have led a more peaceful life.

Conclusion

I didn’t even know that a murder had happened within GUCCI. It wasn’t until I saw the trailer for this movie that I found out about it. I wonder why I didn’t know about it, but the year the murder happened, 1995, was also the year of the Tokyo Sarin Attack. While the GUCCI murder probably made international news, it may have been overshadowed in Japan by the impact of the Tokyo Sarin Attack.

I hope you get to experience the reality of the horrific power struggles that led to this murder caused by outrageous “greed.”