“House of Gucci” draws Lagos audience from far and near as it premieres at the Silverbird Galleria on Tuesday night (November 23rd) in what will go down as one of the most enthralling fashion-cum-movie nights in recent times. Not many a time do we have a movie inspire a perfect convergence of fashion and movie enthusiasts. The night was graced by eminent personalities in both the movie and fashion spheres.
Salsa dance group entertained the audience with electric steps as the music rolls with lights of a thousand colours while the cocktail put everyone in the mood for more of what the night had to offer. The lights soon fell on fashion models gracing the runway in their most suave individual styles and attires. You can’t but roll your eyes!
All of that is but a hint at the celebration of fashion and filmic excellence the audience was later to experience as soon as the movie started at 8 p.m. “House of Gucci” enraptures you to the point of immobility and quick mental alertness as you are swiftly taken through the cocktail of a grand drama featuring alluring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver who both team up to bring a spark to director Ridley Scott’s crucial attempt at examining the intrigues, crime, and murder beleaguering the family of the Fashion Empire, Gucci, between late 1970s and 1990s. Patrizia, a lady from a humble family, falls in love with Maurizio Gucci, and the rest is history. But this is not such a regular love story out there. Many twists and turns that’d whip you this way and that till you find yourself glued to the screen for 2 hours 30 minutes without you even realizing it.
Jumoke Odetola and the hosts 
A lady and her gift
Lady Gaga, proves here that she is not just a flash in the pan with her acting wonderment in “A Star is Born.” In “House of Gucci,” she even exudes more charm and materialism germane to the character she portrays. No wonder Patrizia causes eyes and mouths to run riot whenever she ambles through her father’s employees. Her transitioning between sweet lover and loving wife into a murderer is both shocking and revealing of how many layers there can be to a character and how the person of Lady Gaga can ease herself into the skins of Patrizia.
Adam Driver makes a good case for why he is in a high demand with a slick maneuvering through the character of Maurizio. He’s had a wonderful year featuring in weird musical, “Annette” and the drama “The Last Duel” (also directed by Ridley Scott). Working with the same director on another set no doubt helps Driver jive well playing Maurizio.
Fashion and movie buffs alike aired their views of the movie after more than two hours of stirring movie experience.
Jumoke Odetola, Nollywood famous actor and movie maker spoke glowingly about the movie, “The movie is very interesting and intriguing. It’s told right. Making such storylines into movies at times…it could be boring and then telling it could be difficult but this is a movie people should come out to watch. I also learnt about career, being ambitious, knowing when to draw the lines.” When asked what she would do if she were Patrizia, she laughed and said, “You never say never. A lot of times we say I’d never do this until you find yourself in some situations. Life happens to people. You have to be there to know how you can really handle it.”
Maggie, fashion designer, derided the absence of love in the relationship between Patrizia and her husband, “Patrizia is only married to the family name, Gucci. I wish she did better. I could kill the side chic first. I don’t think I’d kill my husband if I were in Patrizia’s shoes.”
Affoy tried to see things from Patrizia’s angle, “What got me into the movie is the storyline…some things about Gucci I didn’t know and how the movie played out. I feel the lady did not probably go as extreme as people say she did because if you hurt somebody you don’t have the right to tell them how to react to the hurt. Maybe Patrizia did not handle the hurt well but then she was hurt. So I don’t blame her for what happened.”
Gloria Osedeba balanced her views thus, “I feel that Patrizia didn’t deserve what she got from her husband, but again I feel she went too far to have orchestrated his death. Maurizio Gucci doesn’t have enough business sense. It saddens me that eventually no member of the Gucci family is currently at the helms of affairs at Gucci. A lot of lessons for men and women. Women should avoid the extremes when seeking revenge. Men should learn to stay with the women that made them.”
“House of Gucci” comes with meticulous strokes that pungently detail life in the 70s, 80s, and 90s with the colourgrading seamlessly moving with times and language of the seasons. The movie takes a crazy play with disco lights (of the disco room) and spotlights of the runway with cameras flashing excitedly, livening the fashion shows. What the movie does with music in the closing scenes where Tracy Chapman’s “Sorry” booms out solemnly would certainly help totalize the concept that the director wants moviegoers to go home with.
Though highly opinionated critics have come out to express how much they expected much more from such a movie because of the artistic ingredients available to make it the whirlwind of a cinematic adventure it should be, “House of Gucci” remains a remarkable filmic venture.
It is distributed in West Africa by Silverbird Film Distribution. The movie is Rated R and is now showing in cinemas across Nigeria.
