This November 24, 2021 is released at the cinema “House of Gucci”, by Ridley Scott. We discover Lady Gaga in the role of Patrizia Reggiani and Adam Driver in Maurizio Gucci. But who was the “black widow” convicted of ordering the murder of her ex-husband? Here is Pop it, the aufeminin weekly decryption.
The film House of Gucci, directed by Ridley Scott, looks back at the true story that bloodied the famous Italian fashion house Gucci. On March 27, 1995, Maurizio Gucci, heir to the famous company, was assassinated. After extensive investigations, his ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for having ordered his murder. House of Gucci looks at this mundane couple, to say the least, ambivalent. From their meeting in the family legal battles to become owners of the Gucci brand until their divorce, not to mention the death of Maurizio Gucci, the film immerses us in the life of this toxic duo.
These complex roles were given to Adam Driver and Lady Gaga who, of course, burst the screen. If the film is brilliantly led by these two actors, it unfortunately leaves the audience hungry. Patrizia Reggiani, in particular, remains an elusive woman in this feature film, like the woman she truly was. Complex, daring, ambivalent, greedy for power … We look back on the real life of the one we now nickname “the black Widow.”
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From the rise of Patrizia Reggiani to her descent into hell
Patrizia Reggiani was born near Modena, to an unknown father and a waitress mother who would later marry Ferdinando Reggiani, a businessman. Thanks to this union, the little girl lacks nothing. But if her mother’s husband is rich, Patrizia Reggiani struggles to get rid of this label of a young woman from a modest background. However, she goes from evening to evening and from gala to gala. She therefore frequented high society until the day when, in November 1970, she met Maurizio Gucci, a rich heir to the Gucci house and a law student. The two lovebirds love each other and get married, much to the despair of Maurizio’s father, Rodolfo Gucci. For him, the young woman is especially interested in the money of the clan …
Patricia and Maurizio then move to New York where their uncle, Aldo Gucci lives. The opportunity for Patrizia to integrate into the Gucci and to advise her husband on the affairs of the company, until Maurizio becomes, on the death of his father, the majority shareholder of the house. “Maurizio lost his mind. Until then I was his advisor. Then he stopped listening to me”, she confided in an interview with the Guardian, in 2016.
The movie “House of Gucci” divides the famous family
After 12 years of living together punctuated by social events and glitter, Maurizio Gucci leaves Patrizia for another woman. A humiliation for the one we nicknamed Lady Gucci for a while. The divorce went very badly and Patrizia took years to sign the divorce papers. When she is arrested for having ordered the murder of her ex-husband, she denies the facts. Yes, she has indeed claimed to want the death of Maurizio to those around her, but she never took action, she promises.
Now 72 years old, Patrizia Reggiani does not hide her dissatisfaction with the release of House of Gucci, as did the rest of the Gucci family, who sidelined her. “I am rather annoyed that Lady Gaga is playing me in Ridley Scott’s new film without having had the consideration and the sensitivity to come and meet me”, she explained. Always ambivalent, she also stressed that she was upset not to “get a dime from the movie”, while ensuring that “It is not an economic question. It is a question of common sense and respect”.
Lady Gaga, who did a colossal archival job to delve into the role, of course retorted in an interview with British Vogue. “I could do this story justice only if I approached it with the eye of a curious woman who wished to be journalistic., explains the artist. The idea was that I could read between the lines what was going on in the scenes of the film. So no one was going to tell me who Patrizia Gucci was. Not even Patrizia Gucci. I didn’t want an opinion that could water down my thinking. “ A good summary of who Patrizia Reggiani was: a flamboyant, enigmatic and ambivalent woman for everyone, even her interpreter …
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