Manuel de Teffé and the world of Italo-westerns

Stand

by Cristina Giordano and Daniela Nosari

6/122026

Italian-style westerns, Italo-westerns or spaghetti-westerns: films mistreated for decades by critics, but loved by audiences also in Germany, produced in Rome in the sixties and rediscovered by Tarantino's Hollywood. In "Once Upon a Time in Rome - La Dolce Vita Is Tinged with West", Manuel de Teffé tells the fictionalized story of those years and of his father, protagonist under the name of Anthony Steffen of over 25 Italian westerns. Films, events and concerts celebrate that world now in Düsseldorf.

The cover of "Once upon a time in Rome", image by Tony Stella

But who was Anthony Steffen?

He grew up among the posters of the many western films shot as a protagonist by his father, from "A Long Line of Crosses" to "Django the Bastard", but Manuel de Teffé is a son of that era that does not recognize an artistic validity to this genre. Despite being a very profitable industry, which in the space of a few years produced over 400 films, in fact, the world of Italo-westerns was snubbed for decades by film critics. Anthony Steffen made 27 films as a protagonist between 1964 and 1974.

Manuel de Teffé in unseren StudiosManuel de Teffé in our studios

Manuel de Teffé in our studios

It takes a Quentin Tarantino who at the beginning of the 2000s organizes a review of these films at the Venice Film Festival to relaunch the genre, but also to make our guest change his mind. There, invited to present a film with his father as the protagonist, the director sees Anthony Steffen on screen for the first time and re-evaluates him as an actor. A few years passed from there to the screenplay of a western, but with the move to Germany right at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, the book "Once upon a time in Rome" was born. In the fictionalized story of Antonio de Teffé, a set and refined theater actor, we find out how the actor Anthony Steffen was born, capable of playing ruthless anti-heroes in the desolate frontier towns of the American West.

La dolce vita is tinged with West... in Düsseldorf

The book has already received several awards, including the Sergio Leone prize and, most recently, the "Premio Italofonia Düsseldorf" of the Dante Alighieri Düsseldorf Society, a prize for Italian-language writers abroad, in its first edition. In the book, the Dante Alighieri Society sees "an original look at a fundamental chapter of the imagination of the twentieth century". The award ceremony in March 2026 kicked off the rich festival "La dolce vita si tinge di West", which until June 20 has presented and still presents events, workshops, concerts and of course films to watch or rediscover.

The Dante Alighieri Society Festival Düsseldorf

Festival vom Verien Dante Alighieri DüsseldorfThe Dante Alighieri Society Festival Düsseldorf

The next appointments are on the evening of Saturday 13 June at the headquarters of the Dante Alighieri society in Düsseldorf with the presentation of the book and scenic readings as well as clips of the films, attended by Manuel de Teffé, the president of the Dante Alighieri Beatrice Santini, and the well-known actor Giorgio Colangeli. On Sunday, June 14, we would like to point out the conference on the music of Ennio Morricone, on Thursday, June 18 the film "Django the bastard" at the Kino Black Box and the final concert with music by Ennio Morricone on Saturday, June 20 at the Stadtmuseum in Düsseldorf. The festival was organized with numerous partners, including the Italia Altrove association and the Heinrich Heine Universität.