Gucci family slams House of Gucci movie release

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 1, 2021

The Gucci family has hit out at the new House of Gucci movie, accusing it of inaccuracy and slamming the film’s makers for not speaking to the family before making it. The Ridley Scott movie starring Lady Gaga is tagged as being "inspired by the true story" and has generated huge interest in the Gucci brand now owned by Kering.

In a strongly worded statement, the family said: “The Gucci family notes the release of the film House of Gucci with some bewilderment given that, despite the claim that the work seeks to tell the ‘true story’ of the family, the fears aroused by the trailer and interviews released thus far are confirmed: the film conveys a narrative that is anything but accurate”.

The Gucci family has been against the film’s production from the start, understandably so given the drama is built around the life and murder by a hitman of one-time Gucci head Maurizio Gucci. In 1998, his wife Patrizia Reggiani, from whom he was separated, was convicted of arranging the killing. She’s played by Lady Gaga in the film. 

In its statement, the family said “the film’s production did not bother to consult the heirs before describing Aldo Gucci – president of the company for 30 years – and the members of the Gucci family as thugs who were ignorant and insensitive to the world around them, attributing entirely fabricated attitudes and conduct to the protagonists of the notorious events”.

As result, they said the movie is “extremely painful from a human point of view and an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today”.

They’ve also objected to what they see as the film portraying “a woman who [was] condemned for having instigated the murder of Maurizio Gucci” as “a victim trying to survive in a masculine and chauvinistic corporate culture”.

The family said the company was actually “always inclusive” in its 70-year history and at the time the of the historical context in which the film is set had a number of women in top positions, including non-family members. 

Adding that the family “reserves the right to take any action necessary to protect the name, image and dignity of themselves and their loved ones”, the statement also said the Gucci family lives by “honouring the work of its predecessors, the memory of whom does not deserve to be upset merely to put on a fictional show that does not do justice to its protagonists”.