Needless to say, this article is going to explore the ending of Sir Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, so do not go any further if you haven’t seen it, and still plan to.
The ending of House of Gucci plays at the beginning of the film as well, bookending Ridley Scott’s soap opera about the legendary fashion family. This might be because anyone who read up on the story knows the ending: Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), heading into his office, is shot dead by assassins hired by his ex-wife, Patrizia (Lady Gaga). The crime occurred on March 27, 1995, and Scott’s House of Gucci does its best to explain how all of the players got to that stage.
But something happens in the scenes leading up to Maurizio’s death in House of Gucci that I found puzzling. Though the man’s life has taken a few hits, he is sitting at a small cafe table deep in thought. And before he climbs on the bicycle he will ride to his office, and his death, he smiles to himself. In that moment, it seemed very out of character, so when given the chance to interview Adam Driver for this new movie, I asked him about that moment, and his interpretation of it.
Though he went out of his way to emphasize that his interpretation of the smile isn’t, by any means, the be all and end all explanation, he clarified some of the team’s intent for the scene, telling CinemaBlend:
The thought ot Maurizio’s journey being one that -- decisions are made for him in this life. He starts the movie as the most wise and distant. You know, he goes to school to be a lawyer. And he starts the movie saying things like, ‘Gucci is like that cake. You have a piece, and then you suddenly want the whole thing.’ He’s very beyond his years in the pitfalls of luxury, and is uninterested. So how does someone who starts that way get seduced by the thing that he knows is toxic?
There are fun parallels in House of Gucci to The Godfather, and not just because they both star Al Pacino. But you can see elements of Michael Coreleone in Maurizio, for the way he initially rejects the “family business” until he gets pulled all the way under. By the end of House of Gucci, though, Maurizio is free. Or, so he thinks. And there lies the tragedy of Ridley Scott’s otherwise tense and funny exercise. Adam Driver went on to tell CinemaBlend:
Eventually he starts to become more and more himself, and starts to have faculty. And falls in love again. But even that doesn’t suit him. So only when he is away from the family, he goes full circle and back to where he was before, when he’s beyond the business is he really the most relaxed, is he really the most himself. And I think that’s what we were trying to do in that one scene.
He’s only himself for a little while longer. Today, Lady Gaga picked up a Best Actress award from the New York critics, and this could be the beginning of a solid run for her. We shall see. Look for House of Gucci, in a theater near you as we speak.
