Possibly the best moment in Ridley Scott’s rococo-a-go-go true-crime drama House of Gucci is the one in which the brash, ambitious young typist Patrizia Reggiani, in pursuit of Maurizio Gucci, the shy and charming heir to the old-money leather-goods empire, writes her phone number in bold strokes of lipstick on his motorbike’s windshield. That’s a pro move by itself, but what comes next is the killer gesture: she swipes the bullet across her lips and, without the benefit of a mirror, effects a tidy scarlet cupid’s bow in two seconds flat. Either gesture by itself would be memorable. But it’s the seamless linking of the two, the easy swing from the inventively practical to the seductively frivolous, that’s the real trapeze act. The greater part of acting is what happens between the beats. And Lady Gaga, the actor who plays Patrizia in House of Gucci, knows just what to put in that space.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
No one should be surprised that Gaga is such a captivating actor, both in House of Gucci and in her breakout film, the 2018 A Star Is Born. Singers often make terrific actors. They’re primed for it: All singing is acting, a channeling of feelings or remembered experiences through the body, the diaphragm, the mouth. A song is emotion drawn in the air, summoned by technique. Admittedly, bringing a character to life on a stage or screen does require a somewhat different mastery of craft, and not all singers can make the leap. But the core skills are there. As an actor, Gaga isn’t an anomaly; she’s just the latest in a long line of singers who have also given terrific screen performances.
Gaga’s character in House of Gucci is based on the real-life Patrizia Reggiani, a woman of modest means who fell in love with the shy, bookish Gucci scion Maurizio (played in the movie by Adam Driver as a timid charmer with a backbone of steel). After marrying into this illustrious family, Reggiani…
Source : time
