Lady Gucci Review – The Patrizia Reggiani Story [HBO Max]

Director: Jovica Nonkovic | Time to play: 75 minutes | Year: 2020

In 2021 it arrived gucci house out, a movie about how one of the owners of the famous fashion brand met his wife, who eventually killed him. Of course it was known well in advance that this production was coming. Some Italian documentary makers probably wanted to make a profit by quickly filming an interview with the real Patrizia Reggiani Gucci, who has now been released from prison. That’s a loveless motive, and it shows.

Boy meets girl, falls in love, gets married, woman wants her to run her multi-million dollar business, man wants divorce, woman lets man kill: the well-known fairy tale of the Gucci family. In this documentary, not only Lady Gucci herself speaks, but also her ex-girlfriend, lawyers, police officers, a criminologist and a journalist. Together, they tell the story of who Patrizia is, how she became Mrs. Gucci, and how she ended up in jail for ordering the murder of her husband.

It was the love of his life, he says. And a little later he talks about how he searched all over Milan for someone who was willing to take the love of his life. That is in the first minutes, and it immediately becomes clear that his statements are unreliable. From time to time, even incoherent madness comes out of his mouth.

Her lawyer has yet to rule that she was actually guilty, saying she served her sentence anyway and that’s it. She’s right about that, but it’s still exhausting watching Patrizia pretend it wasn’t really her fault. She pretends to be a little girl, stating that she had a great time behind bars and that she would like to go back. Anyone who has ever lost their freedom knows that this is complete nonsense.

So was her former best friend Pina, who helped her find someone to pull the trigger. She shows much more remorse by confessing that what she did was wrong. And she indicates that Patrizia did not have a very good time in prison. Beautiful is the moment when Pina says that no one can be in prison for long and come out as the same person, after which she is immediately edited to Patrizia, who claims that she returned to the outside world unchanged.

Lots of people speak, and they are all Italian speaking at a breakneck pace. Sometimes the subtitles can’t even keep up. As a result, the information doesn’t really stick, and as soon as something like a more interesting anecdote comes up, it’s immediately recited with the next story. In addition, this documentary also offers little interesting information that is not in gucci house passed by.

The worst thing about this documentary is how it was shot. The footage is what it is, there is little that can be changed. Here and there are some staged moments of actors imitating what is being told, their faces not even appearing in the picture. But most of it is filled with shots of the interviewees. And that works the same way for each person: alternating between a static medium shot and a slow-motion wide shot. If these images were viewed without sound, they would appear to be the same over and over again.

One moment that is unintentionally laughable is when Patrizia has to answer why she ever asked if anyone wanted to kill her husband in the first place. She looks like Madeline Kahn in Cluewhen exposed as the perpetrator of one of the many murders: half sentences, struggling to say something as long as it isn’t the wrong thing (aka: the truth).

A boring documentary that has little to add and is full of atmosphere, showing over and over a shot of Patrizia looking at the camera while ominous music plays. That woman is ridiculous enough not to have to be ridiculed by the filmmakers. Her story is much better told in gucci house. The only thing to take away from this documentary is that Lady Gaga and Adam Driver were the perfect casting choices.

lady gucci can be seen in hbo max.