Gucci family says Ridley Scott's crime drama House of Gucci is 'painful and insulting'

The surviving members of the Gucci family have criticised the recently released crime drama House of Gucci, directed by Ridley Scott.

The heirs of Aldo Gucci, released a statement on Monday saying that they were unhappy with their portrayal as "thugs, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them." They also said that Scott and the producers had proceeded with the project without consulting with them.

The film that stars Adam Driver and Lady Gaga is based on The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed. The Gucci family said that the book depicts them in "a tone and an attitude to the protagonists of the well-known events that never belonged to them," according to The Guardian.

"This is extremely painful from a human point of view and an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today," added the statement.

The family has particularly taken offence to the representation of Patrizia Reggiani as "a victim trying to survive in a male and male chauvinist corporate culture."

In the seven decades that the family has owned Gucci, the brand has only ever been inclusive in its functioning, said the statement, pointing that in the 1980s in which the film is set in, some of the top executive ranks were held by women.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that previously Patrizia Gucci, the daughter of Aldo Gucci, had called out Scott for "stealing the identity of a family to make a profit to increase the income of the Hollywood system."

Reggiani, who was convicted for hiring a hitman to kill her husband Maurizio Gucci and was released from prison five years ago, had also said that the makers did not consult her either.

Besides Gaga and Driver, House of Gucci also stars Al Pacino, Jared Leto, and Jeremy Irons.