It should be acknowledged how impressive it is that Ridley Scott, an eighty-three-year-old filmmaker, managed to make two expensive and fairly complex movies back to back, releasing them subsequently a few months from each other. Regardless of the dumb discourse surrounding Scott right now about Marvel movies, millennials, the future of cinema, what movies can depict, and all that twitter nonsense, this is a pretty incredible thing. In his old age, Scott is as efficient as ever and he knows exactly what he’s doing. What’s also astonishing is just how good both movies turned out to be. Reductive assessments and genuine grievances aside, I still say The Last Duel was exceptional, and House of Gucci in many ways is as much so.
I did not know about the Gucci scandal; I barely knew anything about Gucci itself, save for it being an elite fashion brand –something well outside my field of interest or circumstantial purview. Scott’s film, based on a book by Sara Gay Forden, casts the Gucci family, however accurately or not, as an almost mafia-like dynasty: powerful, connected, wealthy, Italian, and with a highly valued sense of family loyalty. But Scott’s avenue to them comes from the outside, from Lady Gaga’s Patrizia Reggiani, a seeming Becky Sharp of a protagonist, marrying into the family with ambitions of taking it over.
Certainly it would seem in the early goings that she’s a little too into dweeby law student Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver -in his second collaboration with Scott this year). There has to be that ulterior motive suspected by Maurizio’s father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons), who disinherits his son when he reveals his plans to marry Patrizia. And yet, Patrizia continues the relationship still, employing Maurizio at her parents’ trucking company and wedding him anyways. It’s curious. Yet the cunning Patrizia has shrewd back-up plans and a little finesse of her own, too subtle for the trusting Maurizio to spot.
It was the right move to make Patrizia the centrepiece in constructing this movie, and it was the righter move to cast Lady Gaga, who gives her best performance yet as the scheming social climber. In fact it might just cement her as THE singer-actress of her generation, the way Barbra Streisand or Cher were before her. Lady Gaga plays Patrizia with extreme calculation, cozying up to the right relatives, hiding her ambition in displays of concern, and all with a remarkable confidence. Every action or remark contains clues to her agenda or lets slip feelings she keeps to herself. Obviously, Lady Gaga is sexy enough to fit the style icon the part requires of her, but she commands equally effectively in her power and influence. Everybody in this cast which includes seasoned veterans, are dwarfed by her, it’s astonishing!
And she probably has the best, most consistent Italian accent of the bunch.
It’s true the accents vary from performer to performer in this all-American/British cast, and the accents themselves can be distracting at the outset. But it’s not long before they just blend into the fabric of the film and, with the exception of that of Jared Leto’s Paolo, become completely tolerable. And on the topic of Leto, who I’ve not been a fan of in most of his work, I don’t particularly mind him here, as much as he sticks out like a sore thumb. For one thing, he’s completely hidden by such extravagant make-up so that you’re not constantly aware it’s him, and for another his character is such a pathetic loser who nobody likes -for some reason that kind of part suits Leto. His cartoonish Mario-like accent only reinforces that wonderfully unflattering image.
It’s true the accents vary from performer to performer in this all-American/British cast, and the accents themselves can be distracting at the outset. But it’s not long before they just blend into the fabric of the film and, with the exception of that of Jared Leto’s Paolo, become completely tolerable. And on the topic of Leto, who I’ve not been a fan of in most of his work, I don’t particularly mind him here, as much as he sticks out like a sore thumb. For one thing, he’s completely hidden by such extravagant make-up so that you’re not constantly aware it’s him, and for another his character is such a pathetic loser who nobody likes -for some reason that kind of part suits Leto. His cartoonish Mario-like accent only reinforces that wonderfully unflattering image.
There is a camp sensibility that informs the movie, but is not by any means its’ dominant tone. The world of high fashion is just generally camp and ridiculous, Scott illustrating it for the circus it is. It’s a larger than life industry that goes with the larger than life saga he is telling, with its’ pronounced family drama, the gaudy atmospheres they move in, its’ downright Shakespearean overtones. Characters are double-crossed left and right, as the fall of the House of Gucci is illustrated as an operatic struggle between generations and tastes and pride. Maurizio has no intent of following in his family’s footsteps, but Patrizia quietly guides him into it as her way of attaining that empire. As she points out at one juncture, despite marrying into the family, she’s more of a Gucci than he is -except in her inability to see it all backfiring when she bites off just a bit more than she can chew and accidentally creates her own worst enemy.
I think Scott threads the needle of the films’ serious and silly elements to the point even Leto doesn’t feel out of place. He suffuses the exciting narrative turns and entertaining characters with a great sense for the films’ innate stylishness –it looks every bit as glamourous as something from classic Hollywood- as well as the rich cinematography from frequent collaborator Dariusz Wolski. As with The Last Duel, he shows how easily he can traverse genres and acclimate to new rules. He’s helped along of course by the fantastic cast, Driver and the formidable Al Pacino as family patriarch Aldo Gucci, giving the most compelling performances after Lady Gaga -Salma Hayek though, as Patrizia’s primary co-conspirator, is underutilized. But Scott also just finds the best ways to illustrate the story’s ideas, keeping it thrilling. There are a lot of smart editing choices, and the needle-drops are incredible, from Eurythmics to Bowie and even Tracy Chapman in the end.
The movie doesn’t spend a lot of time on the assassination, it’s more curious about how a series of events in the years leading up to it resulted in the end of the Gucci family’s control of their own brand. How they went from riches to rags -that’s the real death House of Gucci is concerned with. And regardless of what the truth is, the movie feels comprehensive in this. Every player’s perspective is considered or alluded to, you understand them and perhaps sympathize with their position at some point (except Paolo the doofus), and yet there’s never any doubt Patrizia has the most drive, the most gumption -she’s the one needed to keep Gucci afloat, and naturally when that can’t happen, she’s the one to bring it all down. A brilliant, cutthroat character who as played by Lady Gaga is certain to have a long shelf life.
House of Gucci is sprawling and weird and a little bit dense, but also funny and sexy and narratively captivating. It’s one of those movies that probably does have a little bit of something for everyone, even if they might not be initially on board with the rest. Like The Last Duel, it’s an ambitious adult-oriented movie unafraid to straddle convention. Its’ performances really give it that special jolt though, and Lady Gaga’s especially. I wish there were more movies like it.
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JordanBosch
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jordan_D_Bosch
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/jbosch/
Comments
Post a Comment