House Of Gucci & Patrizia Reggiani True Story: Everything The Movie Leaves Out

2021’s House of Gucci renewed interest in the titular Gucci family’s story of business, struggle, and betrayal. House of Gucci is helmed by a star-studded cast under the guidance of the Academy Award-nominated director Ridley Scott. The film tells the story of the Gucci fashion house, but centers specifically on the relationship between the late Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) and his ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga). House of Gucci‘s all-star cast includes Academy Award winners Lady Gaga, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, and Al Pacino, as well as Oscar nominees Adam Driver and Salma Hayek.

However, no matter how talented the cast or how well they attempted to recreate the real Gucci family, the movie itself could only include so much of Gucci’s real history. House of Gucci is Ridley Scott’s controversial crime drama based on the true story of Patrizia Reggiani and the events leading up to her conviction for murdering her ex-husband Maurizio Gucci. While the movie does a fair job of telling the dramatic story of the Gucci family and what used to be their fashion brand, the director received criticism from the real heirs of Aldo Gucci.

The Boardroom Fight Of 1982

Aldo Wanted To Attack Paolo Due To A Tape Recorder In A Board Meeting

A physical altercation took place in a Gucci boardroom meeting in 1982. Paolo brought a tape recorder into the meeting, inciting a violent confrontation between the real-life characters behind House of Gucci. While there are several accounts of what transpired, the overall consensus is that Maurizio had to try and hold Paolo back as Aldo attempted to take the tape recorder away.

According to Jenny Gucci in her book Gucci Wars, Paolo then called the police and had lacerations on his face which left him bloody and with a headache. Family lawyer Domenico De Sole disputed, this saying it was little more than a scratch.

Rodolfo’s Movie

Rodolfo Gucci Was An Actor In Real Life

In the House of Gucci true story, Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) wasn’t simply part of the Gucci brand and Gucci household; Rodolfo was an actor who went by the stage name Maurizio D’Ancora. He appeared in more than 40 films from 1929 to 1946. Not only was Rodolfo an actor, but he also made a movie of his own, a feature-length film about his own family.

Titled Il cinema nella mia vita, Rodolfo’s movie was created partially for the benefit of his son Maurizio. Rodolfo wanted Maurizio to be able to see more images of his mother Sandra, as she passed away when he was still young.

How Patrizia Reggiani Was Caught (& Where She Is Now)

Patrizia Served 18 Years Of Her Prison Sentence

House of Gucci does show how Patrizia Reggiani may have admitted to the murder of her husband Maurizio in her diary. In the film, she is shown writing “paradeisos,” which is the Greek word for paradise. In the true story of House of Gucci, Patrizia wasn’t the only suspect. Police were investigating multiple potential motives behind Maurizio’s assassination — including Maurizio’s business transactions, such as his investment in a Swiss casino, and any number of the Gucci family conflicts.

Lady Gaga proves herself in House of Gucci, but to this day, no one can prove who led the police to the real-life Patrizia. In 1997, Patrizia was sentenced to 29 years in prison. In 2000, her sentence was reduced to 26 years, but she ended up only serving 18 before being released for good behavior. Patrizia’s jail time could’ve been much shorter, but she refused to take part in a work-release program.

For viewers wondering where Patrizia Reggiani is now, in October 2011, she was offered parole if she would agree to get a job, but she scandalously said, “I’ve never worked in my life, and I’m certainly not going to start now” (via The Telegraph). She was released in 2016 and still receives $1.2 million from her deceased ex-husband’s estate every year.

Aldo’s Time in Prison

There Were Two Books Wrote About His Prison Time & They Contradict Each Other

Aldo (Al Pacino) was in prison for tax evasion. In the Name of Gucci: A Memoir by Patricia Gucci details how traumatic Aldo’s one-year-and-a-day prison sentence was for the man. However, House of Guccibased its accounts of what happened during Aldo’s sentence not on Patricia’s memoir, but on Gay Forden’s book.

In Forden’s book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed, Aldo is described as having used his phone privileges to call a woman he had a crush on. Like the mixed reviews for House of Gucci, the real accounts of Aldo’s prison sentence are also mixed. While Patricia described the experience as distressing, even going so far as to say it left her father as nothing but a “ghost of his former self,” in In the Name of Gucci, Aldo described his time in prison as restful in a letter he wrote.

What Happened To Their Daughter(s)

The Movie Combined Two Daughters Into Only One

In House of Gucci, Maurizio and Patrizia Reggiani have one daughter whom they name Alessandra. An important detail in the film is that Patrizia tells her father-in-law, Rodolfo, that she was the one who had the idea to name their daughter after Maurizio’s mother. In reality, Maurizio’s mother was named Sandra. However, in real life, the pair had two daughters. House of Gucci streamlined the story by removing Patrizia and Maurizio’s daughter Allegra from the picture.

Both Alessandra and Allegra live in Switzerland with their families now. They initially had a good relationship with their mother and made efforts to free her from prison. Allegra even went to law school in an attempt to help her mother. The relationship between Patrizia Reggiani and her daughters has become strained over the years, however. Both daughters have now cut their mother off. Even without any ownership of the Gucci brand, both Allegra and Alessandra are still very wealthy, having inherited millions of dollars from Maurizio, all the Gucci residential properties, and a yacht.

Maurizio Forged The Signature

He Had His Secretary’s Assistant Do The Deed

In House of Gucci, Maurizio attempts to obtain Rodolfo’s share certificates. He does this so that he won’t have to pay inheritance taxes. In the true story, Maurizio pawned the task off onto his secretary, Roberta Cassol. When she was unable to forge the signatures herself, her assistant Liliana Colombo was the one tasked with signing Rodolfo’s name. Colombo, under the direction of Maurizio and Cassol, forged Rodolfo’s signature on share certificates for Guccio Gucci S.p.A. and Gucci Parfums and provided multiple signatures on documents neither Cassol nor Colombo knew the names of.

In real life, Maurizio fled to Switzerland during the investigation into the forgeries. Maurizio was eventually found guilty of forging his father’s signature, but he was later acquitted. Even though Maurizio was found guilty of forging the signatures in real life, the film insinuates it is Lady Gaga’s Patrizia Reggiani who forges the signature.

The Murder Trial

The Movie Left Out The Trial’s Details

House of Gucci doesn’t discuss the infamous trial for the murder that sparked the story. As part of Patrizia’s defense, her lawyers argued that she wasn’t actually threatening Maurizio. Her threats weren’t made by someone with full mental faculties as she had just undergone brain surgery for a tumor. Patrizia Reggiani was still declared fit enough to stand trial.

Once the trial started, her defense switched gears and began arguing that Pina (Salma Hayek) blackmailed Patrizia and that Patrizia hadn’t had any part in the murder plot until Pina’s blackmail. Unfortunately for her defense, Patrizia did take the stand during her own trial, and when Pina questioned her about this blackmail, she said she was forced to pay $365,000, but “It was worth every penny” (via The New York Times). This poked a few holes in the theory that she paid purely because of blackmail.

The Role Of Women In Gucci

Women Were Looked Down Upon In The Gucci Empire

There aren’t many biological Gucci women portrayed in House of Gucci. In reality, Guccio Gucci had five sons and one daughter named Grimalda. Grimalda spent years working for Gucci; however, upon her father’s death, all of her brothers were given a share of the Gucci inheritance, and she was left out. At one point, she and her husband, Giovanni Vitali, reportedly helped to save the company from bankruptcy in the mid-1920s.

One of Aldo’s sons, Roberto, claimed that Aldo said women weren’t allowed to be partners in Gucci. In her book In the Name of Gucci: A Memoir, Patricia Gucci discussed how she felt her aunt Grimalda was born as the wrong gender. Grimalda only received 12 million lire and a portion of land from her late father’s inheritance despite having worked hard for the Gucci company. Her brothers blocked her attempt to have the will legally changed.

Members of the Gucci family have since spoken out about the film, complaining that it incorrectly portrayed Patrizia Reggiani as a victim fighting for her place in a male-centered workplace. In a statement the heirs of Aldo Gucci released, they claimed that Lady Gaga’s Patrizia wasn’t actually fighting against sexism within the Gucci brand because, at that time, there were already “several women who held top positions” (via Variety).

On the other hand, one thing that may lend a bit more truth to the film are statements made by several Gucci women. Not only did Patricia Gucci express sorrow over her aunt Grimalda for being “born of the wrong gender” in her book, but Paolo’s wife Jenny Gucci also wrote in Gucci Wars, “It was a known fact in the world of Gucci that women were second-class citizens and would never be included in its management​​​​​​.”

Rodolfo’s Wish

Rodolfo Wanted Patrizia Kept Away From Gucci Shares

Even though Maurizio supervised nearly every one of Rodolfo’s visits as he began to pass away, Aldo managed to have one conversation of note with Rodolfo. This conversation is detailed in Patricia Gucci’s book In the Name of Gucci: A Memoir. She wrote that Rodolfo made Aldo swear to watch Maurizio and make sure that Patrizia Reggiani never got her hands on the company shares.

In her book, Patricia claimed that allowing Rodolfo’s daughter-in-law Patrizia to take an active role in Gucci made Aldo believe that he had let Rodolfo down by not upholding his final wishes in House of Gucci.

What Did The Gucci Family Say About House Of Gucci?

The Gucci Family Bashed The Movie

The representation of Patrizia Reggiani as a victim in a male-dominated workspace wasn’t the only issue the Gucci family had with Scott’s depiction if their story. The full statement released by the family (via Variety), also claimed that House of Gucci‘s story presented “the Gucci family as thugs, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them.”

While House of Gucci‘s critical reception may have been mixed and its shot at the 2022 Oscars pretty much snubbed, this is nothing compared to the decidedly negative reaction that actual Gucci heirs have had to the film, which stems mainly from claims of inaccuracy.

What Did House Of Gucci Get Right?

The Fashion Aspects Were Perfect

Although House of Gucci takes plenty of liberties with its retelling of the events, the film truly shines in its accurate depiction of fashion from the era. The House of Gucci true story ranges from 1978 to 1995, and the costumes in each scene are carefully crafted to showcase not only the Gucci family’s immense wealth but also what luxury fashion actually looked like during these years. The same goes for hair and makeup, which is likely why House of Gucci was nominated for this category in the 2022 Academy Awards.

What Ridley Scott Thinks Of The House Of Gucci Controversy

Scott Says The Gucci Family Is Lucky Al Pacino Was In The Movie

After the Gucci family slammed Scott’s interpretation of them, director Ridley Scott fired back tenfold. While the Gucci clan believes that House of Gucci cast a dark cloud over their legacy, Scott thought his portrayal of them and the events that unfolded surrounding their brand was absolutely fine. Even Patricia Gucci, the only daughter of Aldo, disavowed Al Pacino’s portrayal, saying that he didn’t resemble her father at all.

In an interview (via Total Film), Ridley Scott defended his casting choices along with his portrayal of the House of Gucci story. In terms of how Patricia felt about Aldo, Scott had this to say,

“The people that were writing from the family to us at the onset were alarmingly insulting, saying that Al Pacino did not represent physically 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 f*cking lucky.”

House of Gucci also got some backlash over Jared Leto’s Paolo Gucci, saying that he played an Italian caricature. However, Scott had words about this one too, saying, “[…] but there are pictures of Paolo and that’s exactly what Paolo looks like. We found the pictures and Jared did what he did and dressed the way Paolo dressed.” The Gucci family obviously didn’t take Scott’s portrayal of the family’s true story lightly, and the director clearly had to go to bat for his film.

The House Of Gucci True Story Was Shocking – But It Didn’t Dent Gucci’s Sales

The Movie Actually Helped Gucci As A Brand

House of Gucci is a scathing look at the behind-closed-doors fights between the family members who own the Goliath fashion brand, and it’d be safe to assume that the movie might have somewhat damaged the company’s sales. Nevertheless, despite depicting the unbelievable drama, the company’s sales didn’t drop whatsoever. However, House of Gucci did have an effect on Gucci’s sales, as they actually increased. Shortly after the movie’s release, online searches for Gucci products rose by 25%, and searches for vintage Gucci items rose by 35% (via NSS Mag).

This shocking turn of events is being called “the House of Gucci effect,” and it proves that there really is no such thing as bad publicity. Within three months of the movie being released, it was also reported that over 25,000 posts across news and social media were made about the brand, which garnered online visibility worth $104 million (via InStyle). House of Gucci is ultimately about the owners of Gucci using the company as their own personal piggy bank, and it all ends in murder, betrayal, and bankruptcy — ironically becoming a very successful 150-minute commercial for the brand.

Did These Changes Help Or Hurt House Of Gucci?

The Changes Were Needed & Actually Improved Much Of The Story

The changes from the true story to the movie had little effect on the film as a whole. When it comes to the people watching the movie, those who closely follow the Gucci brand or the people involved likely snubbed their noses at the project based on the massive backlash against the changes. However, most people who go to the movies don’t care about such things, and it was all about the allure of seeing Lady Gaga on the big screen or watching a scandalous story with a murder at its core.

The changes involving the omission of the trial was likely smart, as this was a story about the relationship between Patrizia and the Gucci family, and the trial would have been a little too much if included at the end of the movie. If there was any change that likely hurt the movie, it was the reaction to Jared Leto’s performance as Paolo, which made it hard to discern if this was a serious movie or a parody of a tragic event. Whatever the reason, the film was not a big box office success.

House of Gucci only made $147.4 million worldwide, with a dismal domestic take of $53.8 million (via Box Office Mojo). With an estimated $75 million budget, it was a huge flop for Ridley Scott and a very disappointing release for the director. However, that didn’t hurt its reception as it has a positive Rotten Tomatoes score (62%) and the audience score is a very high 83%. With that said, the changes likely helped as one positive reviewer wrote, “House of Gucci was very unexpected, mainly cause I knew nothing about their history.”