Art Of Pretending

This might not have been what you had thought of whilst watching House of Gucci but it was all I could think about as the end credits were rolling and everyone else was discussing everyone’s Italian accents in great detail.

I found myself linking the plot of Ridley Scott’s movie to Shakespeare’s (nearly) unparalleled play Macbeth. Quite honestly, I am not a Shakespeare aficionado but I have had the pleasure of reading and analysing various Shakespeare writings such as the tragedy of Macbeth in school. I genuinely enjoyed that I got to read a play, that has been loved by people for centuries. I basked in the fact that I could now analyse Macbeth and was able to put my own spin on everything. The beauty of interpretation and finding new meanings where others might see nothing special. A very fun read despite having to read it for school, which always makes a book duller than it actually is. 

The protagonists Patrizia Regianni (played by Lady Gaga) and Lady Macbeth do have a lot in common in my eyes. In the beginning of the story they are characterised as the loving wife standing by her husband as times are getting tougher. By act two their housewife persona gets rewired and they establish dominance over their partner. Act three concludes with death. Lady Gaga, or better, Lady Gucci and Lady Macbeth could be seen as a great duo. A pairing most probably no one even thought to acknowledge except me.

These will be the two characters we will look at today, even though I would also love to comment on everyone’s Italian accent in grave detail.

The plot of Macbeth is fairly simple: The Lady of the House longs for her husband to become the King of Scotland. It is of the utmost urgency to her so she tells, rather commands him to do everything in his power to be crowned royalty. Macbeth feels pressured and decides to kill the reigning King Duncan. Lady Macbeth is great at persuasion because she makes her now anxiety riddled husband think it was indeed his idea to murder the King to become his successor. Due to his rage Macbeth kills a few more men. Plagued by feelings of insecurity the new King goes crazy. He fears people could connect the dots and rightfully kill him. The story ends with Lady Macbeth committing suicide because she had spoken in her sleep and given everything away. Grief stricken and having fallen into a deep depression our protagonist dies by being beheaded in battle. What a tragedy!

Maybe now you will have understood the connection between Shakespeare’s story and House of Gucci. (It is not Al Pacino, a Shakespeare buff, being part of the cast.)

Ridley Scott’s film, released 2021, somewhat follows the same structure as Macbeth. House of Gucci tells the story of the rise of the fashion brand as well as its fall from grace before and after a murder takes place.

But let’s start at the beginning: Patrizia Regianni, a young woman with humble beginnings falls in love with Maurizio Gucci, the future heir of the fashion empire- and the future that she could obtain if he were to fall for her too. She is dominant from the beginning and MAKES him fall in love with her. Ultimately this wasn’t hard thanks to her charm and him being incredibly awkward. The Gucci family puts Maurizio in front of the choice to either not marry the gold digger that is Patrizia or to leave them his share of the company. Maurizio chooses the woman he thinks he fell in love with. Years pass and the couple are expecting a child, which Patrizia uses to her advantage to reconcile with the family. It worked. They are now back in the business and Patrizia is eager to take over the company. Maurizio ends with 50% interest in Gucci. She plays the long game and convinces her husband to become more active and get rid of the head of the business, who is also his uncle. What quickly follows are countless sequences of betrayal, con artistry and lies. In the midst of all these downfalls Maurizio also realises he might not love Patrizia anymore. He is tired of being used, being lied to and ultimately being in a loveless marriage. The Gucci family is hanging on by a thread and to top it all of Maurizio begins an affair with an old friend of his. Sadly the Gucci heir cannot manage the brand and nearly runs the fashion house to the ground. Patrizia is furious but not ultimately because of the affair but because she has no part in managing Gucci anymore. She makes a deal with two hit men, who end up shooting her ex husband in broad daylight. The film ends with Lady Gucci getting sentenced to a prolonged prison sentence. Gucci lives on and becomes successful again, until this day.

Maurizio resembles Macbeth in the sense that he also is an inherently self conscious character unsure of where he stands in life. He isn’t aware, until later, of the power he could hold. It is Patrizia who makes him into the Gucci heir without him knowing or properly acknowledging it. She does everything in her power so that her husband and essentially her can take the throne and take control over the company. If that means to betray one’s family then Patrizia will gladly take those chances. Maurizio might have the advantage of being a stakeholder in the company but ultimately it is his wife who makes the decisions. She makes him believe that it is him with the power but he should not underestimate the power of persuasion Lady Gucci has mastered. Just like Lady Macbeth our protagonist makes sure to help her husband get rid of everyone in his way. Maurizio goes crazy, he realises she might not be so good for him in the end. That is the difference between him and Macbeth. Up until his last breath Macbeth is irrevocably in love with his wife. Maurizio on the other hand ends up hating his with every ounce of his being. Now looking at Lady Macbeth’s suicide, obviously Patrizia does not kill herself but in a way she commits social suicide. No one will trust her anymore, she won’t have a proper relationship with her child and she has lost the social standing she tried so hard to build up whilst in a marriage of convenience. Being convicted for incitement to murder and going to prison for 29 years could be seen as her taking her own life since she won’t have one for the next thirty years. Obviously Lady Macbeth did not order to kill her spouse but in a way she aided with his execution. He murdered King Duncan because she demanded he should take matters into his own hands. If she hadn’t, Macbeth would have simply gone on with his life merely because he would have never tried to obtain the crown. Maurizio and Macbeth would have continued living their life as it was if it wouldn’t have been for the women they fell in love with being so incredibly ambitious. Their wives needed them in order to succeed, at least for a little while. Both stories take place during times where women’s opinions and ideas weren’t taken seriously so it is only fair they used their mildly smart husbands to break free. Now the stories don’t end well for any of them but I am sure if it would have been up to the Ladies of the hour and them not needing a husband the stories would look incredibly different. Who knows, maybe Lady Macbeth would have been able to become the Queen of Scotland and Lady Gucci could have taken over the fashion empire of her dreams.

Author’s note: This article has been sitting in my drafts ever since I watched the film in the cinema and for that I deeply apologise because I know some of you were very eager to read it but now you finally got it. Thank you for taking the time to read!