After All the money in the world featuring the Getty family, Ridley Scott shows us again the jet-set’s darkest side in his new project, House of Gucci. The film, currently shooting, depicts the turbulent story of the Gucci dynasty, focusing on the murder of Maurizio Gucci, which shook Italy in 1995.
The script is based on Sara Gay Forden’s book The House of Gucci: a sensational story of murder, madness, glamour and greed, a promising title if there ever was one. Adam Driver plays the aforementioned Maurizio and no other than Lady Gaga his former wife, Patrizia Reggiani. The facts to which we refer, which took Italy and the whole world by surprise early in the morning of 27 March 1995, were as follows:
Maurizio Gucci, 46, founder’s Guccio Gucci grandson and then CEO of the company had been shot dead at 8.30 a.m. when he was about to enter the brand’s headquarters in Milan. Not by chance, all eyes immediately turned to Patrizia Reggiani, his ex-wife since 1995 and with whom the relationship was far from peaceful.
The 80’s and 90’s were tumultuous years for the Gucci family, marked by constant disputes among Guccio’s descendants over the control of the company. The increasing tensions eventually ruined many personal relationships in the family, Maurizio and Patrizia’s marriage being one them.
Five years after the divorce, she couldn’t get over no longer being “la Signora Gucci” or that she had been abandoned for a much younger woman that Maurizio was about to marry.
Neither common sense (not that common, after all…) nor the fact that she had two daughters with him could prevent Patrizia from conceiving a reckless plan to get her revenge on Maurizio, the details of which seem to be taken out of an Almodovar film.
Assisted by her trusted tarot reader, who acted as intermediary, she had hired the services of a hitman who executed the crime. After a brief investigation, Italian police found several evidences that connected Patrizia with the perpetrators of the murder and soon she confessed she had planned the whole thing.
The former Mrs. Gucci spent eighteen years in jail, where, according to an interview she gave to The Guardian in 2016, she slept a lot and looked after her plants and her ferret, Bambi. Nowadays, Patrizia keeps a low profile and lives comfortably thanks to some financial settlements reached with Gucci. However, she stills come into the limelight every now and then: contacted by Italian press regarding the upcoming film about her story, she declared feeling offended by Lady Gaga not wanting to meet with her to discuss the case and details of her role.
In all honesty, such interview would be pure gold. I easily imagine Stefani Germanotta (a.k.a. Lady Gaga), in a haze of platinum blonde, mile-high heels and fake lashes, seating in Patrizia Reggiani’s living room at tea time. I almost see her, affectionately placing her hand on the now-elderly lady’s one while she whispers those immortal words “Mama” Morton said in Chicago (2002): “You don’t need to tell me, honey; I never heard of a man getting killed when he didn’t get just what was coming to him”.
Find out more:
House of Gucci, a Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour and Greed. Sara Gay Forden (Custom House, 2002)
Gucci Wars: How I Survived Murder and Intrigue at the Heart of the World’s Biggest Fashion House. Jenny Gucci (John Blake Publishing Ltd, 2009)
Image: Gucci
