Once upon a time there was the Wild West, and a 1976 film by Robert Altman called Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson, in which Paul Newman played the legendary scout William Frederick Cody, travelling with the Wild West Show which explored the Frontier myth. Altmann’s revisionist western proposed a demystifying reflection upon the founding myths of this epic American story. It was the same idea which fuelled Marco Ferreri’s grotesque satire Touche Pas À La Femme Blanche that same year, which saw Michel Piccoli playing a sacrilegious Buffalo Bill in a surreal version of the Battle of Little Bighorn set in the vaults of Rome’s Porta Maggiore. With just a few degrees of separation from these movies comes the third millennium anti-western, Heads or Tails? [+lee también:
entrevista: Alessio Rigo de Righi y Ma…
ficha de la película], directed by Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis among the dunes of Circeo National Park, 100km from Rome. The film is competing in the 78th Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section.

Heads or Tails? looks back to the early twentieth century when Buffalo Bill arrived in Rome with his travelling show. He’s played by the magnificent John C. Reilly, who was the protagonist of another post-western directed by a European filmmaker, The Sister Brothers [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Jacques Audiard
ficha de la película], by Jacques Audiard (which sits at another degree of separation from these movies). In the show, while scalping Indian chief Yellow Hand, the national actor-hero extols the “land of opportunities” where everyone is free to become whomever they wish. Italy has been united for several decades at this point and, with the arrival of steam, the new rulers are the railway builders, such as police chief Rupè (Gianni Garko, who’s now 90 years old with leading roles in numerous spaghetti-westerns under his belt). His despotic son Ercole Rupè (Mirko Artuso) throws down a challenge to Buffalo Bill: a contest between his cowboys and the Italian butteri. The tournament is won by Santino, with Alessandro Borghi basing his character more on Terence Hill in Enzo Barboni’s spaghetti westerns than on Sergio Leone’s Clint Eastwood. And when Rupè’s young French wife, Rosa (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), shoots her husband and runs away with Santino, the police chief puts a bounty on the killer buttero and “kidnapper”.

Partly accompanied by a voice-over delivered by Buffalo Bill, who’s responsible for returning both with the lady and with Santino’s head (a direct link to Sam Peckinpah’s legendary movie Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia), the film proves picaresque. Rosa is in love with Santino – “you have bright eyes and a light heart” – and her mind’s set on the American dream across the sea. But these lovers on the run still have a number of obstacles to overcome. Such as an encounter with a group of revolutionaries led by an exiled Argentine man (Peter Lanzani) who’s rebelling against the oligarchs (see A Fistful of Dynamite by Sergio Leone). Santino turns out to be a skilled troubadour as he sings about his own deeds and assumes responsibility for his evil master’s homicide, becoming an unwitting hero. After a classic train heist, he ends up in a cell with Giovanni, aka Zecchino (lit. "Gold Coin"), played by Gabriele Silli (the protagonist of the directors’ first feature, The Tale of King Crab [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Alessio Rigo de Righi y Ma…
ficha de la película]). There’s a sense of continuity with this film, given the directors’ obvious intention to cross-fertilise epic tales from both shores of the Atlantic Ocean, traditions and legends which are often passed down through popular ballads.

Both films also share a fascination for open spaces and nature, showcasing stunning sequences, such as the encounter with the frog harvesters who dazzle the tiny amphibians with small mirrors reflecting the sun. Director of photography Simone D’Arcangelo favours the red light of sunsets which floods the protagonist’s face. Easy-going and irreverent, and overflowing with passion for film as a timeless medium to be manipulated, Heads or Tails? entertains whilst also warning us that freedom comes at a price and that power has no tolerance for those who try to take it for themselves, which might even cost them their heads.

Heads or Tails? is an Italian-American co-production by Ring Film and Cinema Inutile together with RAI Cinema, in association with Andromeda, Cinemaundici and Volos Films. World sales are entrusted to RAI Cinema International Distribution.