Paolo Gucci

It is fitting that Ridley Scott House of Gucci has a card that says “inspired by the true tale”. Gucci’s family has been a long-standing mythmaker and influencer of the company’s image.

Aldo Gucci was most likely the one who began the story about the Gucci family’s descent from noble saddlemakers and medieval courts. His father, Guccio, was actually a London Savoy Hotel employee before opening his small shop in Florence, Italy.

The story centers on Maurizio and Patrizia Reggiani’s love story. Their ambitions to be part a world of wealth and power led them to murder him in 1995.

Becky Johnston and Roberto Bentivegna are credited with the screenplay. They adapted Sara Gay Forden’s 2000 book House of Gucci : A Sensational Tale of Murder. Madness. Glamour. and Greed. Have other films used a book’s title as a direct directive?

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The movie reduces and streamlines the story – Reggiani had two daughters and Maurizio had one; Aldo had three boys and Paolo had one; Maurizio was filmed four times and not three; the book devotes much more space to the business machinations of the family and the seemingly endless lawsuits they would file against each other.

Roberto, Aldo’s only son, was not shown in the movie. He went on to start a small business selling leather goods in Florence, after selling his shares in the family company. I ask for forgiveness for their many mistakes. “Who doesn’t make errors?”

The film closes with a card acknowledging the company’s current leadership and noting that its estimated value is currently US$60billion – far more than the company was at the time of the story.

House of Gucci cannot capture the bigger-than-life Gucci family members and their circle.

Patrizia Reggiani

Reggiani and Maurizio were married when Reggiani was called “The Joan Collins of Monte Napoleone” by the Italian press. This refers to a prestigious shopping street in Milan. During the trial she would be called “The Black Widow”. In the press, she would sometimes be called “Lady Gucci”, which was a reference to the woman who would be later portrayed by Lady Gaga on screen. After serving 18 years, she was sentenced to 29 years imprisonment for her role in the murder of her husband. She could have been released earlier but refused a work-release program. According to reports, she stated that “I never worked one day in my life and that I don’t plan to start now.”

Reggiani has found her way back to the limelight in the years that have passed since her release. When asked by paparazzi why she hired a gunman instead of killing Maurizio herself, Reggiani replied, “My eyesight was not so good, but I didn’t want it to miss.” In November 2020, Reggiani won a case before Italy’s Supreme Court. Her daughters, Allegra and Alessandra tried to stop her from receiving a substantial annuity out of the Gucci estate. In 2014, she stated that “I still feel like Gucci – in actual, the most Gucci among them all.”

Maurizio Gucci

Maurizio would change his mind and join his family business to ruthlessly expel his relatives in order to realize the vision he believed would save the company. He was a lavish spender and a poor manager, which left the company in an untenable position when he gave up control.

Forden’s book describes how Maurizio climbs in the company. His father Rodolfo says to Reggiani that “Once he has money and power, he is going to change.” Maurizio would eventually manage his family members out of the company. In 1985, he and Reggiani parted ways. He allegedly packed a bag and had his friend tell Reggiani the next day that they weren’t coming back.

After Maurizio had sold his 50% interest in Gucci to an investment firm to purchase his relatives’ shares, Gucci would cease to be run by any Gucci family members in 1993. On March 27, 1995, he was shot to death in Milan from the steps of his Milan office.

Aldo Gucci

Aldo Guccio was the oldest son of founder Guccio. He oversaw Guccio’s rise to international prominence, making it a symbol of luxury and wealth. Aldo created a complex web of subsidiaries, companies and franchises that licensed the Gucci brand for other products as well as its trademark leather goods . This made it a huge engine for profit. Aldo, who was 81 years old, was sentenced to one-year and one-day for tax evasion at an American prison. He sold his Gucci shares in 1989 and died one-year later.

Paolo Gucci

Paolo, who had always longed to be a designer, worked tirelessly to get his name on products. He tried to use the Gucci branding to his advantage.

Aldo, his father, had given 10% of his 50% stake to his three sons. Each of them was allocated 3.3 percent. Paolo merged his interests with Maurizio’s 50 percent, and he began the process that eventually led to the company being sold to his family. In 1993, he filed for bankruptcy and died in London in 2015.

Paolo’s daughter Patrizia said, “Horrible. Horrible.” “I still feel offended.”

Rodolfo Gucci

Rodolfo Guccio is the youngest of their sons. He was an actor in films before joining the family business following WWII. Alessandra Winkelhausen Gucci was Rodolfo’s wife. Their son Maurizio was just five years old when their marriage ended. Rodolfo was devoted to Maurizio all his life and never remarried. (Maurizio was named for Rodolfo’s screenname, Maurizio Da’Ancora.) Rodolfo would present Il Cinema Nella Mia Vita or The Movie of My Life, as a documentary about his personal life and a plea to Maurizio for the preservation of the family’s legacy.

After being accused of forging the signature of his father on stock certificates that Rodolfo had used to transfer Rodolfo’s Gucci shares, Maurizio was acquitted. Although Reggiani is implied to have forged the signatures in the movie, Rodolfo’s long-time assistant testified that she actually committed the act.

Paola Franchi

Tall and thin, blond, and comfortable in the worlds of the wealthy – Maurizio was the opposite of Paola Franchi during his last years. Paola was living with him in Milan’s lavish Corso Venezia palazzo at the time of his passing. Charly Franchi, Charly’s son, was also living in Milan at the time of his death. The film does not include Charly. Paola and Maurizio had been friends briefly as teenagers. They met on Santa Margherita’s beaches and started their relationship in 1990, after reuniting at a St. Moritz nightclub. Reggiani ordered Paola to be expelled the day after Maurizio’s murder. She filed papers with the court just hours after the shooting. A 2016 article in The Guardian stated that Franchi split her time between Milan, Kenya and Milan.

Pina Auriemma

After seeing Pina Auriemma on TV, Reggiani calls Pina Auriemma, a psychic. Forden’s book claims that the two met in Ischia at a spa where Reggiani was with Maurizio. The two became close friends. Auriemma was sentenced for her role in securing assassins that would kill Maurizio. In 2010, she was released.

Hayek plays Auriemma in House of Gucci. He is and married to Francois–Henri Pinault CEO of Kering. Kering is the luxury brand that currently owns Gucci. According to a story in the Hollywood Reporter it was Pinault that granted permission for the production to use Gucci’s name and to access the archives.

Tom Ford

Tom Ford was first introduced to Gucci by the American-born designer in 1990. In 1994, he was made creative director. Ford’s designs helped Gucci become an international brand that is hyper-luxe and over-sexed. In 2004, he left Gucci and has since launched his own Tom Ford brand and is the Chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

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Ford was also responsible for the Academy Award-nominated feature films Single Man, and Nocturnal Animals. He spoke to GQ about the House of Gucci film project.

“I read the screenplay before it was made. And, you know what? For someone who has lived it, it is hard to believe that some things are glamorous in film. I read descriptions of what was happening, what the characters were wearing, and what their activities were – I was there and they weren’t as glamorous. If I was making the movie, I would do the same thing. “I would increase the glamour a little.”

Domenico De Sole

Domenico De Sole, an Italian-born and Harvard-educated lawyer, could be viewed as the winner of the Gucci family era of Gucci business ownership. Rodolfo hired De Sole after Aldo stood up to De Sole in a meeting. He would go on to become the CEO of Gucci America from 1984 to 2004 and then CEO of Gucci Group.

De Sole is largely credited for being the business genius behind the Ford years’ unstoppable success after Maurizio had sold the interest. De Sole is currently a member of the boards of many other companies.