The Wind from Wyoming

The Wind from Wyoming
French	Le Vent du Wyoming
Directed by	André Forcier
Written by	Patrice Arbour André Forcier Jacques Marcotte
Produced by	Nardo Castillo Claude Léger
Starring	Sarah-Jeanne Salvy France Castel Céline Bonnier Michel Côté Marc Messier
Cinematography	Georges Dufaux
Edited by	Jacques Gagné
Music by	Christian Gaubert
Production companies	Eiffel Productions Les Productions EGM Transfilm
Distributed by	Malo
Release date	September 2, 1994 (1994-09-02) (Canada)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	French

The Wind from Wyoming (French: Le Vent du Wyoming) is a Canadian black comedy film, directed by André Forcier and released in 1994.[1]

The film centres on a dysfunctional family whose efforts at finding and keeping love become tangled up with a stage hypnotist performing at the local hotel.[2] Daughter Léa (Sarah-Jeanne Salvy) is in unrequited love with Reo (Martin Randez), a boxer who has instead entered a relationship with her mother Lizette (France Castel), while her sister Manon (Céline Bonnier) has a crush on Chester Celine (François Cruzet), a writer she has never met, and her father Marcel (Michel Côté) remains hurt by Lizette's betrayal of him. They all enlist Albert the Great (Marc Messier) to hypnotize their respective love interests, but the effort backfires and forces them to deal with unintended consequences.[2]

Production

The film's original working title was Ababouiné.[3] This was changed before the film's release, but was later recycled as the title of Forcier's 2024 film Ababooned (Ababouiné).[4] The film is dually listed in Gerald Pratley's 2003 book A Century of Canadian Cinema, with separate entries for Ababouiné and The Wind from Wyoming.[5]

Distribution

The film premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival in 1994.[6]

It was released on 4 screens on September 2, 1994 and grossed $18,578 in its opening 4-day weekend.[7]

Awards

At Montreal, the film won the awards for Best Canadian Film and the International Critics Prize.[8] Forcier was shortlisted for Best Director at the 15th Genie Awards,[9] At the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in 1995, Forcier won Best Screenplay and Salvy won the Revelation of the Year award for emerging performers;[10] the film was also a nominee for Best Picture, but did not win.[11]

References

1. "Le Vent du Wyoming blows in with emotional-knockout power". Montreal Gazette, August 28, 1994.
2. "'Reality doesn't interest me at all': Filmmaker Andre Forcier's work Le vent du Wyoming is up for the grand prize at Montreal's World Film Festival - now, he says, if only people will come to see it". The Globe and Mail, August 27, 1994.
3. Charles-Henri Ramond, "Vent du Wyoming, Le – Film d’André Forcier". Films du Québec, June 12, 2009.
4. "Le dernier film d’André Forcier à Fantasia". La Presse, July 3, 2024.
5. Gerald Pratley, A Century of Canadian Cinema. Lynx Images, 2003. ISBN 1-894073-21-5. pp. 8, 241.
6. "Eighteenth annual filmfest looks like the strongest yet; Over 300 films from 60 countries". Montreal Gazette, August 10, 1994.
7. "Film box office report". Daily Variety. September 7, 1994. p. 8.
8. "List of 1994 World Film Festival award winners". Montreal Gazette, September 6, 1994.
9. "The Genie nominees". Kingston Whig-Standard, October 20, 1994.
10. "Octobre takes $5,000 top prize at Rendez-Vous". Montreal Gazette, February 14, 1995.
11. "And then there were six; Rendez-Vous du Cinema Quebecois narrows field for top prize". Montreal Gazette, January 25, 1995.

External links

• The Wind from Wyoming at IMDb