House of Gucci at The Cinema at Selfridges
I know I'm not the only one who feels they have outgrown the cinema. I've heard from many people who also feel Hollywood has been doing a pretty bad job with coming up with new, worthwhile stories, hence the constant remakes. Not to mention the price of going to the cinema and then the risk of being stuck with a mediocre movie. In contrast you have streaming platforms which today advocate so many different perspectives which mainstream cinema never covers. I can't even remember the last time I went to the cinema.
Alternatively, I think we all have a love-hate relationship with streaming platforms. Paradoxically the quick and easy access to a plethora of shows and movies also encourages mediocre productions made with speed and on a budget. I find it really difficult to finish a movie these day as so many are just so bad.
So I'm surprised to say how The Cinema at Selfridges made me fall in love with cinema all over again. Even though the Everyman is another fantastic example of how good cinema can be (comfy seats which include sofas and side tables, as well as being able to buy actual food and snacks.) But Selfridges truly took it to a whole new level. It was a classic, old school, silver screen experience like how you think it may have been many, many, years ago back when the excitement of watching movies on the big screen was still alive.
And this is largely due to the journey Selfridges have put together from the moment you enter, all the way through to when you leave. The dim lighting, jazz-bar like decor and plush sitting booths. Additionally, the mocktails were delicious! I've said this before quite a few times, as I did when I went to Kai and Amazonico; you can tell if a bar is truly good if they know how to make tasty drinks without alcohol. Oh the irony of a bar at a cinema doing a better job than renowned restaurants.
I never really had any desire to rush to the cinema at Selfridges, or really to go back to any cinema at all. I think the little to no expectations I had heightened my actual experience. I can't recommend this cinema enough. It was pure decadent magic.
I also didn't have any expectations of House of Gucci, but was holding my breath to be pleasantly surprised. Given how we've established there are few movies today worth watching, it's complete luck as to whether a new movie would be worth your time. It is for this reason I've started to watch movies I've already seen (as I know a lot of other people have) because at least you know it'll be worth the investment.
House of Gucci did deliver. It wasn't spellbinding, but worth watching. There were a few moments when I could sense the loss of pace and was expecting it to tail off, but it would always pick up again.
I love movies centered around life stories, and interestingly House of Gucci had similar themes to other movies of this nature. Such as, the people who start to build an empire are robbed of it, and how greed enables one to betray the other. This was also depicted in The Founder, the story of the rise of McDonald's (a fantastic watch by the way, also currently streaming on Amazon Prime).
Similarly to the biopic, Steve Jobs, the House of Gucci focused on the family, the development and complications of relationships whilst the fashion is positioned as a backdrop, bubbling along like a catalyst. Whilst this didn't take away from enjoying the narrative, it was my only disappointment; I would have liked to have seen how their fashion was reinvented and the impact it had on people, whereas this storyline was given very brief airtime via the introduction of Tom Ford.
There were other common themes which emerged which often weave through other movies because… I guess it has become one of the implicit beliefs which we quietly have accepted as a society. And it's one of the things as a woman I feel strongly about; how the woman is ignored or doubted, despite being the driving force behind a man's success, and how when the man succeeds, he discards her for another woman who he thinks is right for him at that moment in time.
Even though I started off by understanding why Maurizio would become distant from his wife, Patrizia, due to her controlling and wild nature, how cold he became towards her and her daughter towards the end had me changing to team Patrizia.
However, therein lies another issue I feel strongly about; a woman not being able to express all her different sides, especially her wild, erratic and the stereotypically labelled 'crazy' side, in fear of being undermined, ridiculed or discarded for another easier woman. As Maurizio was depicted to have done so towards the end.
I can appreciate as time goes on and we change as people, what we want from our lovers will also change. And if you're lucky enough you might be in a relationship where you both are either going in the same direction, or at the very least care about each other enough to support each other and still nurture your love as you grow in different directions. This is why so few people have true love and why relationships are so difficult. And I've always found it heart wrenching how the story of many alleged great men in History, depict them to have used one woman who helped him get to where he is, only for him to discard her later on.
History records and celebrates the achievements of these men but ignores the Love of the women who empowered him to make those achievements.
I also found it disappointing that we weren’t shown how Patrizia was discovered as the culprit of her husband's murder; in one scene Lady Gaga is mourning, it then cuts through to the other where she is being convicted.
The casting is stellar, as is the acting, and nothing about The House of Gucci was cheesy...or even glamorous for that matter (contrary to how the trailers might come across). It was raw and gritty storytelling at its best.