Since the end of the last season of American Crime Story, I’m looking forward to seeing new episodes. Film producer of Nip/Tuck, Glee and American Horror Story, Ryan Murphy, had dedicated his first season to the widely publicised O.J Simpson’s murder case by exploring the racial discrimination against Afro-American people. The second season focusing on striking another American story: the assassination of Italian fashion designer, Gianni Versace, murdered in 1997 in front of his villa in Miami.
From the very beginning, the series is taking us under the Florida sun of 1997 and gives a glimpse into the fashion designer’s world. Murphy, who directed the first episode, gives a special attention to the aesthetic, through the spectacular villa’s corridor, from his meticulously embroidered slippers and his pink dressing gown to the Miami beach, his murderer’s place of distress.
Just like the first season, the second one explores one hot topic in our society. Through Andrew Cunanan -played by Darren Criss-, the director and producer is showing us the portrait of a young criminal full of hatred, ate up by internalized homophobia. With his Patrick Bateman’s look (American Psycho), Darren Criss’ acting is surprising: we see him screaming, laughing and crying in the same scene. In this first episode, we feel compassion for this despised character, who didn’t succeed in the fashion’s world.
In this series, based on Maureen Orth’s book -reporter at Vanity Fair- Vulgar Favors, Murphy coincides the themes of homophobia -a matter close to his heart-, with the prejudices and the incompetence of the American police force at the time.
In a very caricatural role, Penelope Cruz plays a dominatrix and matriarchal Donatella, who mourns her brother in front of the camera and is eager to take his business back behind the scene. Edgar Ramirez’s resemblance with his character (Gianni Versace) is just bluffing and by playing a selfish and greedy character, we can see that Murphy doesn’t hold the Versace family in his heart.
Despite the Versace family disagreements, Ryan Murphy mixed his taste for excess and his love for famous stories to give his point of view on the story. The fashion designer’s family denied the facts related and refused that the brand would be associated with the series. Gianni Versace’s ex-partner, Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin on screen), is unhappy with his on-screen representation, and said the facts were only fictional. Nevertheless, the producers defend themselves by saying that it is not a historical documentary but a free adaptation of a book.
American Crime Story : “The assassination of Gianni Versace” – NYMPHÉA
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