House of Gucci Blu-ray delivers stunning video and audio in this overall recommended Blu-ray release
The story of how Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, plotted to kill her husband, the grandson of renowned fashion designer Guccio Gucci.
For more about House of Gucci and the House of Gucci Blu-ray release, see House of Gucci Blu-ray Review published by Martin Liebman on March 4, 2022 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
Director Ridley Scott's (Alien, Gladiator) House of Gucci teeters on greatness not because its
story is particularly unique but because its characters are
particularly engaging and well performed. The film, based on the true story of the Gucci family's fall (and based on Sara Gay Forden's 2001 book
The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed), tells the story of the empire's infiltration from the
outside and the chaos that followed. Scott directs with a master's eye for detail, cadence, and compelling storytelling, compelling even as the material
follows a fairly routine line of evolution. Still, it's based-on-real-life tropes done very well, with Lady Gaga and Adam Driver delivering in-depth and
compelling performances as the leads.
Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) has her mind set on success, but she's stuck working a support job at her father's modest trucking business. She
believes her fortunes might turn from the better when she meets Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), son of Gucci fashion empire magnate Rodolfo Gucci
(Jeremy Irons). The two fall in love. Rodolfo warns his son against her, believing that she, like so many other women, are only interested in money.
Maurizio chooses love over family and fortune and is disowned. When Patrizia becomes pregnant, she appeals to her husband's uncle, Aldo (Al
Pacino), to return into the family's good graces. She finagles her husband's way back into to the family business when Rodolfo is near death,
leading
her and her husband to hold half of the company. However, her deceitfulness slowly begins to catch up with her, leaving her little alternative than to
plan the unthinkable to save her stature and place in the fame and fortune of the Gucci name.
Like so many of Scott's other films before it, House of Gucci blends high yield narrative plotting, character excellence, filmmaking prowess,
and total audience immersion into the experience. Scott crafts a picture not of grand ambition but rather carefully nurtured components that
together
build
a compelling saga of family affairs, wealth, and, eventually, murder. The story's essential beats will likely be familiar to anyone with a passing
knowledge of modern fashion history, but it is in the way Scott builds the story, manipulates the tension, massages the rough edges, and only then
slowly allows the facades to break down that the film takes full shape and finds its stride. Wealth and greed are at the center of the story. These are
standard bearer plot devices but they are also timeless plot devices, aiming to the very core of the human condition and the uniqueness of the
human
mind, heart, and soul. The film's best asset is not its story but rather its keen gaze into the human condition. Scott essentially puts new window
dressing on an age-old narrative but does with a superb craftsmanship and A-list actors who may not approach the material in a new
way
but do get to its heart with impressive depth and clarity.
Gaga's Patrizia Reggiani is the film's heartbeat. For better or for worse in the larger Gucci family picture the character is the outsider who finagles
her way into a fashion empire and uses both her
body and her brains to maneuver the company into a place of great success and, ultimately, personal failure. Her performance is richly layered,
again
like so much of the rest of the movie not particularly novel but here given a welcome sense of intensity, depth, and intelligence to allow the story to
build around her as she fights to seize her dreams and, later, as she fights to salvage what is left of them. Her work here is amongst the best of her
burgeoning film career in a part that is almost unrecognizable beyond the musical stage persona, falling into character with effortless fullness and
exactness.
The remainder of the cast excels under Gaga's leadership umbrella. Driver, who is amongst the best working today, delivers another top tier
performance, here as the reluctant heir and businessman who wants only to live his life at his pace, by his rules, and on his timetable, but because
he
seeks reprieve from the family name and the pressures of running the family business by escaping into the arms of love, he ultimately discovers
he's
not only on track to take a top position at Gucci against his true life's desire, but that his true life's desire may spell more trouble for him than he
could have ever realized. Driver is the perfect fit for the role, not so much for his impressive physicality but for the depth of his work, his ability to
walk
that juxtaposition between family name and self-identification. More than any other his character undergoes the most arduous arc as he's forced to
find his inner "Gucci" while only striving to find himself. Pacino and Irons cannot quite so easily escape their typical screen personas and transform
themselves for their parts, but Letto delivers a strikingly deep effort that is both physically transformative and emotionally complex; his work rivals
both Gaga and Driver for film superiority.
House of Gucci looks superb on Blu-ray. The image is tack-sharp, revealing the finest point textural might revealed
by its digital source content. The image offers striking facial and skin complexities, tactile hair density, refined clothing lines, and superior clarity to
various location details throughout a fairly wide-ranging array of places. The image's textural might holds steady throughout and there are no
downturns to
soft or smudgy elements. Colors are bold, offering pinpoint precision to nuanced depth and output. Again, clothes are an obvious highlight for vivid,
expressive color output and high yield saturation. Contrast and temperature fall into a neutral range; there is not overly warm content nor frigidly cold
or desaturated color tuning at play. Black levels are perfect and skin tones look fantastic. The picture reveals very little source noise and no major
encode issues of note. This is a terrific Blu-ray presentation from Universal.
The supplied DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack offers a precise audio experience that balances all elements around the stage and delivers
exacting definition to every critical sonic output. Dialogue is, of course, first and foremost amongst the audio track's needs, and the spoken word is in
fine condition, playing with consistent clarity and front center replacement. It is always clear and audible and well prioritized for the duration. Music
stretches far, engages the surrounds as needed, presents with adequate subwoofer output, and holds to lifelike detail from beginning to end, whether
popular music or score. Ambient effects and general atmosphere are nicely integrated and lifelike. The track is not populated with overtly intense sound
elements, but what is here is managed and presented very well
This Blu-ray release of House of Gucci includes three featurettes. A DVD copy of the film and an Apple TV digital copy code are included
with purchase. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.
The Rise of the House of Gucci: Masking Of (1080p, 10:14): Exploring project origins, honing the script, Ridley Scott's direction,
cast and performances, Leto's physical transformation, and more.
The Lady of the House (1080p, 5:35): Zeroing in on Lady Gaga's performance.
Styling House of Gucci (1080p, 5:26): Exploring wardrobe, makeup, set design, and jewelry.
House of Gucci lacks narrative ingenuity (even as it's based on a true story) but its relative lack of novelty is more than masked by both Scott's
expert workmanship and the cast's superb performances, particularly from Gaga, Driver, and Leto. The film is long but never feels too slow or to hurried
through complex material; it's evenly constructed and a pleasure to watch unfold. Universal's Blu-ray is a bit thin on extras, but the video and audio
presentations are nearly above reproach. Highly recommended.
Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to House of Gucci. You can also suggest completely new similar titles to House of Gucci in the search box below.
For the week that ended on February 26th, Walt Disney Home Entertainment's Eternals remained on top of both both the Blu-ray-only and overall packaged media charts. Second place, however, was claimed by Disney and 20th Century Studios' The King's Man, one of several ...
For the week of February 14th, Walt Disney Home Entertainment will release The King's Man on Blu-ray and 4K UHD. Other new releases include Blu-rays for Universal Pictures Home Entertainment's House of Gucci and The 355, as well as a 4K UHD release for Lionsgate ...
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, in association with MGM, has officially announced that it will release on Blu-ray Ridley Scott's House of Gucci (2021), starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino, and Jeremy Irons. The release will be available ...
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to House of Gucci. You can also suggest completely new similar titles to House of Gucci in the search box below.
