The drama surrounding House of Gucci continues as director Ridley Scott has retaliated against Patrizia Gucci’s mocking of Al Pacino, who stars in the film as Aldo Gucci.
The Gucci family has been outspoken about their displeasure at the film not only being made but portraying them in a way that they feel is both inaccurate and unfair.
In a statement, the family said that the film assigns “a tone and an attitude to the protagonists of the well-known events that never belonged to them.”
The family members also took umbrage at the way Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), who hired a hitman to murder her husband, Maurizio, was represented saying that they find it “mystifying” that a woman convicted of hiring an assassin to end her husband’s life could be portrayed as though they were merely “trying to survive in a male chauvinist corporate culture”.
The statement continues, “This is extremely painful from a human point of view and an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today.”
Prior to the film even being released, Patrizia Gucci took aim at Pacino’s portrayal of Aldo, calling his take on the patriarch “shameful, because he doesn’t resemble him at all” and insulting his appearance by calling him “fat, short, with sideburns, really ugly.”
Responding to her harsh words, Scott told Total Film, “The people that were writing from the family to us at the onset were alarmingly insulting, saying that Al Pacino did not physically represent Aldo Gucci in any shape or form.
“And yet, frankly, how could they be better represented than by Al Pacino? Excuse me! You probably have the best actors in the world, you should be so fucking lucky.”
The filmmaker went on to say that he had “tried to be as respectful as possible by being as factual as possible, and as factual as we can possibly imagine.”
“Time and space sometimes has to jump because of the nature of the length of the film,” he said.
Scott has previously responded to the complaints of the Gucci family, and in particular, Patrizia’s comments about the identity of her father being “stolen to make a profit”, telling BBC Radio, “I don’t engage with that. You have to remember that one Gucci was murdered and another went to jail for tax evasion so you can’t be talking to me about making a profit. As soon as you do that you become part of the public domain.”
House of Gucci will be showing at HOYTS Cinemas from January 1, 2022.
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