CANNES – In the years between 1890 and 1906, Buffalo Bill brought his show to Europe and visited Italy twice, stopping in Rome. One of these trips featured a legendary challenge between his cowboys and the local butteri, skilled horse tamers, symbol of the Italian agricultural tradition. This legendary event provided the source material for Heads or Tails?, a film that subverts the rules of the classic Western using them as a tool to examine the present-day, in competition at Cannes in Un Certain Regard. Directors Matteo Zoppis and Alessio de Righi – returning to Cannes after The Tale of King Crab (Quinzaine) – bring a story to the big screen that crosses genres, breaks down archetypes and focusses on fragile, human, living characters, amidst invention and reality, American myth and Italian identity.
“We wanted to make an Italian Western that was actually set in Italy,” the directors explain. “Many of the so-called spaghetti Westerns shot in the country were actually set in the United States, often on the border with Mexico. We were interested in presenting something that was authentically Italian.”
“It all started with a story that we’ve known since we were kids,” they say. “The legendary challenge between Buffalo Bill’s American cowboys and Italian butteri has always fascinated us. It remained there, fixed in our memory, and seemed the perfect starting point for a film that wanted to use the imagery of the Western.”
The film was shot in Circeo, Lazio, with locations across the Paludi area. “We shot in the summer, when there was little water in the marshes, so we had to rebuild them.” The taming competition was shot in Rome, in a Piazzale Clodio that is almost unrecognizable on the screen. The film also used locations in Tuscany: the mountain scenes were shot in Massa Carrara, with locations are far away as Liguria. “We also filmed in the Pantanello Natural Park,” the directors add, “a perfectly preserved oasis where it was fantastic to work.”
The structure of the film, divided into chapters, reflects the tension between storytelling and reality: opening as an almost classic Western it then transforms into something different. “Our idea was always to overturn the subgenres of the Western: the classic, the anti-Western, the surreal. We wanted the viewer to feel that they were in a film which continually changes its look.”
At the heart of the story is Santino, who debuts as a canonical hero — he wins the challenge, saves the girl — but is later revealed to be something completely different. Over the course of the narrative, his character is deconstructed to make room for the film’s true hero, Rosa (Nadia Tereszkiewicz). “Santino is a man who only knows how to ride a horse,” Alessandro Borghi emphasizes. “He is an unarmed man, and we wanted to tell the story of this male, almost tender, fragility.” It’s Rosa who completes the hero’s true transformation arc. “The film begins with the male hero, but then it undermines him, putting him aside. Rosa takes over the story, finds love, and saves Santino from himself.”
One of the most iconic characters in the film is Buffalo Bill, played with irony and measure by John C. Reilly. “As a child I thought he was an imaginary character,” says the actor. “He was so legendary that I couldn’t imagine he had really existed.”
This ambiguity between reality and myth profoundly influenced the interpretation of the character. "From the get-go, the directors and I shared the same sense of humour and we had so much fun imagining what Bill would have thought at certain moments. In some scenes he almost seems like an imaginary character, a collective hallucination".
The experience on set was equally surreal, but in a positive sense. "I love horses, being on horseback is one of my favourite things. Obviously, life on a Western set is something that fits me like a glove. And doing it in Italy was almost magical. We shot in wonderful places, incredible landscapes".
The title of the film appeared early in the process, almost instinctively. But it contains many of the central themes of the story. "Heads or Tails? represents the two sides of a coin", explain the directors. “There is the epic version told by Buffalo Bill and then there is the reality of Rosa’s story. But it’s also more: it’s the moment when a flipped coin is spinning in the air. The actual outcome does not matter so much, it’s what you hope will come out. That desire, that hope reveals the truth of the characters”.