House of Gucci film locations – Times Travel – The Times

Gaga and Gucci: for fashionistas, it’s a match made in cinema heaven — and many of them have temporarily lost their minds awaiting House of Gucci’s release. No wonder. Ridley’s Scott’s new film promises a parade of movie talent and to-die-for outfits. Alongside Oscar-nominated Lady Gaga, we’ll see Al Pacino in thunderous form, glimpse Jared Leto beneath a mountain of prosthetic makeup and watch Salma Hayek fly the flag for the family firm. Her husband, François-Henri Pinault, is chairman and CEO at Kering, the company that owns Gucci.

We’ll also see the most irresistible ski outfit to grace the silver screen since Diana Rigg dodged an avalanche in the Bond movie, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Spoiler: it’s red and involves Gaga. But let’s not forget the third ravishing element of the film: the locations. House of Gucci was shot entirely in Italy, and includes not just an eyeful of the Alps, but Rome’s glittering Via Condotti, as well as one of the most eye-wateringly beautiful villas ever built on a lake shore.

Here we pull out the plums from among the film’s many settings.

Main photo: Villa Balbiano on Lake Como, a key location in House of Gucci (Getty Images)

What’s the story?

House of Gucci stars Lady Gaga and Adam Driver and tells a true story, first outlined in a book of the same name by Sarah Gay Forden. It follows the power struggle that rocks the Gucci dynasty from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, as well as the tempestuous relationship between Maurizio Gucci (played by Driver) and wife Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), which helps fuel it. Reggiani goads Maurizio into staging a coup to seize control of the firm, but in the process their love curdles. He divorces her. She seeks help from a mystic. Then, on March 27, 1995, Maurizio is assassinated. During the murder trial that follows, Reggiani is dubbed the Black Widow by the Italian press…

Where does the story unfold?

Gucci was founded 100 years ago in Florence — in a small shop on the Via della Vigna Nuova — and the Renaissance city is still regarded as its spiritual home. No self-respecting House of Gucci homage would be complete without a visit to its Gucci Garden museum (which, if you’re peckish, is also home to a Michelin-starred restaurant). But in Roberto Bentivegna’s script, most of the action is focused in Milan, New York, St Moritz and Rome. Here and there, real locations feature: but remember, this is cinema. Ridley Scott and his team sought settings to support and amplify the film’s mood and meaning, rather than creating a historical document.

In which ski resort were the St Moritz scenes filmed?

Scott chose somewhere wilder and less developed: Gressoney, near the Aosta Valley. Here, beneath the mighty Monterosa massif, not far from the Matterhorn, the Italian ski villages of Gressoney Saint-Jean and Gressoney La Trinitè offer a taste of the Alps from the days before the modern ski boom. It’s a place primarily for expert skiers, who come for thrilling off-piste descents and heli-skiing adventures, and you’ll often find them in the bar at the three-star Hotel Dufour in Gressoney La Trinitè. It was this spot, in the midst of last winter’s lockdown that Lady Gaga stayed while filming, an unlikely refuge for a movie star.

Most of the actual skiing was filmed lower down the valley on the Weismatten slopes at Gressoney Saint-Jean, while a villa, built in 1920 and currently for sale, was the setting for a party scene. Another house doubled as a bar. For many, the production lit up a dark moment in last winter’s lockdown. “They were fun days that brought a breath of normality to the valley,” says Marianna Clericetti, who worked on the film as an extra.

The Gucci family has a long association with the Swiss ski resort of St Moritz. Maurizio Gucci’s father Rodolfo (played in the film by Jeremy Irons) built a house there in the fashionable suburb of Suvretta, where Fiat’s Gianni Agnelli and the Aga Khan also had properties. It was here too that Maurizio Gucci and Patrizia Reggiani’s marriage disintegrated in December 1985. Home to several glittering five-star hotels, as well as a Gucci boutique, St Mortiz is one of the great winter gathering grounds of the rich and famous — you’d imagine it to be the perfect backdrop for the film’s skiing scenes.

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Where is the beautiful lakeside villa?

It’s Villa Balbiano, the largest private villa on lake Como in Lombardy. Built at the end of the 16th century by Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, the first Duke of Alvito, it has never been owned by the Guccis, but it would be hard to find a setting that better evokes the world that opened up to Reggiani after her wedding. Over the centuries it’s been enlarged and restored several times, and can be hired for weddings, parties and holidays — as well Hollywood films. Never mind the Alps, Lake Como is the loveliest location by far in the film and is perfect for the moment Patrizia Reggiani is introduced to her new family — presided over by Aldo Gucci (Al Pacino).

Where is Maurizio Gucci assassinated in the film?

Maurizio Gucci was shot in the entrance to his offices at 20, Via Palestro in Milan. It’s part of an elegant building, opposite the leafy Giardini Indro Montanelli. But it was too muted a location for production designer Arthur Marx. Instead, he found a section of Rome with wide streets that had the proportions of Milan but a more flamboyant architectural style. “The location has a very operatic feel,” he says. “After all, we were not shooting a documentary. The mixture of styles evokes for me a combination of Tuscan and Arabic architecture. It’s almost like a character in the film.”

What other key locations feature in House of Gucci?

Not surprisingly, the production also spent time in Italy’s fashion capital, Milan. One of the most striking locations is the Villa Necchi-Campiglio, which doubles as Rudolfo Gucci’s home. Built in 1935 by Italy’s leading sewing-machine dynasty, the Necchi family, it’s now a museum, preserving its stately furnishings and interiors. It also featured in Luca Guadagnino’s film I am Love, starring Tilda Swinton.

Other scenes were shot in the arched courtyard of Palazzo Bagatti Valsecchi, on Via Santo Spirito, as well as the glittering Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. Meanwhile, one of the city’s banks was turned into a trashy Gucci knock-off emporium on lower Manhattan’s Canal Street.

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How to get the Lady Gaga ski look

“I don’t consider myself a particularly ethical person. But I am fair.” When Lady Gaga, as Patrizia Reggiani, stirs her espresso in the mountains like she’s mixing poison, and declaims these immortal words, she’s wearing one of the must-have outfits of the film. It’s a shiny burgundy all-in-one ski outfit matched with vintage Dior ski goggles and a fur hat. This winter, every fashion-conscious skier is going to want one.

Sadly, costume designer Janty Yates had the ski suit specially made for the film. And Gucci doesn’t currently produce a line of skiwear. But if you don’t mind stepping from burgundy to scarlet, this is your season. Perhaps the clothing companies intended a homage to Gaga’s Gucci moment, but whatever the reason, there are plenty to choose from, in a wide range of price points. Try Fendi for £2,850, Poivre Blanc £600 and My Sunday Ski at £395. Just don’t imagine you’ll be the only one channelling Lady G on the slopes this winter.

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