“House of Gucci” is a new film by director Ridley Scott with an all-star cast consisting of Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino and more.
The film follows the fall of the famous Gucci family. So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about it.
- House of Gucci is a 2021 American biographical crime drama film
- It is directed by Ridley Scott
- The film is based on the 2001 book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden
- The film follows Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) and Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), as their romance transforms into a fight for control of the Italian fashion brand Gucci
- Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, and Al Pacino also star
- Scott wanted to make a film about the Gucci dynasty after acquiring rights to Forden’s book in the early 2000s
- The project languished for several years, with a number of directors and rumored actors being considered
- Scott and Gaga became officially attached in November 2019
- Much of the remaining cast joined the following summer
- Filming began in Italy
- Filming lasting from February through May of 2021
- The world premiere of House of Gucci was held at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on November 9, 2021
- It was theatrically released by United Artists Releasing in the United States on November 24, 2021
- The film received mixed reviews from critics
- Critics praised the cast performances, particularly Gaga
- But criticized the screenplay and inconsistent tone
- In June 2006, Ridley Scott was set to direct a film about the downfall of the Gucci family dynasty, with Andrea Berloff writing the script, despite the family’s dismissal of the project
- Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio rumored to play Patrizia Reggiani and Maurizio Gucci
- In February 2012, Scott’s daughter Jordan Scott had replaced him as director and was in talks with Penélope Cruz to play Reggiani
- In November 2016, Wong Kar-wai took over as director from Jordan Scott, with Charles Randolph writing alongside Berloff and Margot Robbie now considered to play Reggiani
- In November 2019, Ridley Scott was once again set to direct the film, with Roberto Bentivegna writing the script, and Lady Gaga set to star
- According to the Gucci CEO, Marco Bizzarri, the fashion house cooperated with the production and gave them full access to their archives for wardrobe and props
- In November 2019, it was announced that Gaga would play Reggiani
- In April 2020, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired the rights to the film
- By August, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jack Huston and Reeve Carney had entered negotiations to join the cast
- Driver, Leto, Pacino and De Niro were confirmed by October
- Huston and Carney were confirmed in December along with Jeremy Irons
- While De Niro had exited the film
- Dariusz Wolski announced his involvement as cinematographer that same month
- Camille Cottin joined the cast in January 2021
- In March, Mădălina Diana Ghenea, Mehdi Nebbou, and Miloud Mourad Benamara were added to the cast
- Along with Salma Hayek, who is married to the CEO of Gucci’s parent company, François-Henri Pinault
- In August 2020, it was reported that the filming was expected to begin when Scott completed production of The Last Duel (2021)
- On February 3, 2021, Leto said that the film was still in the pre-production phase and they would start shooting it in Italy in the coming weeks
- Principal photography began in Rome at the end of February, with COVID-19 safety precautions in place
- Several scenes were filmed in early March in the cities of Gressoney-Saint-Jean and Gressoney-La-Trinité, specifically in the Italian Alps in the Aosta Valley
- These were used to recreate the tourist complex of St. Moritz in Switzerland
- Filming also took place in other locations in the country such as Florence, Lake Como, and Milan
- At the end of March, they returned to Rome to shoot scenes at Via Condotti
- Filming wrapped on May 8
- Gaga explained that she took into account how her long-time friend Tony Bennett “feels about Italians being represented in film in terms of crime”, and aspired to “make a real person out of Patrizia, not a caricature”
- To achieve that, she studied Reggiani’s vocal cadence and attitude
- She explained: “I felt the best way to honor Maurizio and Italians was for my performance to be authentic, from the perspective of a woman. Not an Italian-American woman but an Italian woman”
- House of Gucci had its world premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on November 9, 2021
- It was released theatrically in North America on November 24, 2021
- And in the United Kingdom on November 26
- Following its theatrical release, it will also be available to stream on Paramount+
- In the United States and Canada, House of Gucci was released alongside Encanto and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
- It is projected to gross at least $20 million from 3,980 theaters in its five-day opening weekend
- The film opened nationwide on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, and made $4.2 million on its first day from a total of 345,000 theater admissions
- The film made $3.39 million on its second day
- Revised projections estimating a $23 million five-day opening
- As of November 25, United Artists Releasing has spent $12.8 million on television advertisements promoting the film
- On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 61% rating
- Based on 184 reviews
- With an average rating of 6.1/10
- The website’s critical consensus reads, “House of Gucci vacillates between inspired camp and dour drama too often to pull off a confident runway strut, but Lady Gaga’s note-perfect performance has a timeless style all its own”
- Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100
- Based on 55 critics
- Indicating “mixed or average reviews”
- Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “B+” on an A+ to F scale
- Deadline Hollywood noted a strong divide between critics and audiences
- Deadline said “it appears moviegoers are overpowering”
Got anything to add?