What House of Gucci Made Up — and Got Exactly Right

Did Rodolfo Gucci Kick Out Maurizio Because of Patrizia Reggiani?

Yes, and the book House of Gucci makes clear that it happened almost exactly like it did in the film, and that Maurizio did indeed go to work for Patrizia Reggiani’s father. He got back into Rodolfo’s good graces when his children were born. (In the film they have one daughter, Alessandra Gucci, but in truth, they had two daughters, Alessandra and Allegra Gucci.)

As in the film, the real Patrizia lobbied Aldo Gucci (Al Pacino) to bring her husband into the family business. And Aldo, in turn, lobbied his brother Rodolfo Gucci (Jeremy Irons) to embrace his son and new daughter-in-law. The book describes Aldo telling Rodolofo: “Foffo! Don’t be a fool! If you don’t bring Maurizio back into the fold, I am telling you, you will only be a bitter and lonely old man.” Al Pacino delivers similar dialogue to Irons in the film.

How Many Gucci Brothers Were There?

House of Gucci focuses on Aldo Gucci and his son Paolo (Jared Leto) and Rodolfo Gucci and his son Maurizio. But in truth, Aldo had three sons: Paolo, Giorgio and Roberto. (The film also omits that Aldo Gucci also had a daughter, Patricia.)

As portrayed in the movie, Paolo and Maurizio can each expect to inherit their fathers’ shares, and eventually each would then own half of Gucci.

The reality was much more complicated: In the mid-1970s, Aldo Gucci chose to split some of his shares between his three sons, giving 3.3 percent each to Giorgio, Paolo and Roberto. As Forden writes, “He acted as a generous and fair father, not concerned that he had given away his power to command. Any one of his sons could now ally with Rodolfo to create a 53.3 percent majority at a family board meeting.”

As a result of this arrangement, the Gucci family’s shifting alliances and corporate machinations were far messier than those in the film.

Roberto Bentivegna, screenwriter of House of Gucci, makes no secret of his efforts to condense the unwieldy true story by eliminating characters and tweaking the facts to serve the greater story: “It’s called screenwriting,” he told Moviemaker. “It’s called dramatizing.”

Did Patrizia Gucci Really Meet Her Friend Pina Through TV? Who Is the Real Pina?

In the film, Pina (Salma Hayek) is giving psychic readings on television when a despondent Patrizia calls in — and they subsequently become friends. In truth, according to Forden, Patrizia and Maurizio met Pina Auriemma “at a health spa in Ischia, an island off the coast of Naples known for its thermal springs and mud baths. In Pina, who came from an industrial family that operated in the food sector, Patrizia found a lively and entertaining companion.”

The film alludes to their shared fondness of mud baths in a scene in which Pina and Patrizia enjoy a mud bath as Patrizia becomes more darly fixated on her now ex-husband. And it is true, as the film illustrates, that Patrizia turned to Pina for help hiring a hitman assassin to kill Maurizio.

Pages: 1 2 3 4