House of Gucci &#8211; Everything you need to know

House of Gucci is coming to cinemas at the end of the month and it’s already generated so many headlines.

From Lady Gaga to all the fashion we can’t wait to feast our eyes on, here’s everything you need to know about your soon-to-be favourite fashion film.

So many big names

Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, Al Pacino… House of Gucci features some of the biggest Hollywood names, and they’re all directed by Ridley Scott.

What is it about?

House of Gucci is about… the house of Gucci. That is to say, it’s about Gucci, and the famous family that’s given us so much drama, fashion and headlines over the decades.

The film will focus on the 1995 murder of Maurizio Gucci, grandson of designer and founder Guccio Gucci.

MGM’s official synopsis reads: “House of Gucci is inspired by the shocking true story of the family empire behind the Italian fashion house of Gucci. Spanning three decades of love, betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately murder, we see what a name means, what it’s worth, and how far a family will go for control.”

The film is based on Sara Gay Forden’s book, The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed.

Who plays who?

Lady Gaga plays Patrizia Reggiani, ex-wife to Adam Driver’s Maurizio Gucci.

Reggiani is catapulted into a life of “wealth, style, power” and in the second trailer, muses “who wouldn’t kill for that”?

In real life, Reggiani was nicknamed Vedova Nera, Black Widow, and spent 18 years in prison, only being released in 2016.

Lady Gaga

Sporting an Italian accent, Lady Gaga appears to be at the top of her game in what we’ve seen so far of House of Gucci.

She told The Wall Street Journal: “I knew I was about to play a murderer. I also knew how Tony feels about Italians being represented in film in terms of crime. I wanted to make a real person out of Patrizia, not a caricature.

“I felt the best way to honour Maurizio and Italians was for my performance to be authentic, from the perspective of a woman. Not an Italian-American woman, but an Italian woman.

“Choosing to work in a film that’s set in Italy is where my heart lies.”

The House of Gucci

While the film is supposedly about a murder, we can’t help but think everybody will be at the theatres for the fashion.

However, actual Gucci family members aren’t fans.

Patrizia Gucci, one of Maurizio’s second cousins, told Associated Press: “We are truly disappointed. I speak on behalf of the family. They are stealing the identity of a family to make a profit, to increase the income of the Hollywood system…

“Our family has an identity, privacy. We can talk about everything, but there is a borderline that cannot be crossed.”

But what seems to grate the family the most is the fashion, obviously.

Patrizia said: “My grandfather was a very handsome man, like all the Guccis, and very tall, blue eyes and very elegant. He is being played by Al Pacino, who is not very tall already, and this photo shows him as fat, short, with sideburns, really ugly.”

And apparently, Jared Leto’s portrayal of her father, Paolo Gucci, with his lilac corduroy, isn’t getting much love either: “Horrible, horrible. I still feel offended.”

But there is still a very real Gucci connection in the film, and the fashion house was supposedly involved in the production.

Gucci isn’t owned by the Gucci family anymore, it’s owned by Kering. The CEO of Kering is none other than François-Henri Pinault, husband to Salma Hayek, who plays Giuseppina “Pina” Auriemma, confidante to Reggiani.

So that’s something.

Patrizia Reggiani

The woman played by Lady Gaga is free and very much still in the spotlight in Italy.

In a recent interview with Italian TV show Storie Italiane, she was asked how she felt about Lady Gaga playing her.

“I have two daughters, and I don’t like that they relive their father’s situation.”

The Gucci daughters, Alessandra and Allegra, however, are quite grown up and living in luxury with their inheritance.

Back in 2016, Reggiani told The Guardian: “They don’t understand me and have cut off my financial support. I have nothing, and I haven’t even met my two grandsons.”