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]
At Montreal, the film won the awards for Best Canadian Film and the International Critics Prize.[4] Forcier was shortlisted for Best Director at the 15th Genie Awards,[5] 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;[6] the film was also a nominee for Best Picture, but did not win.[7]
The film's original working title was Ababouiné.[8] This was changed before the film's release, but was later recycled as the title of Forcier's 2024 film Ababooned (Ababouiné).[9] 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.[10]
^"Le Vent du Wyoming blows in with emotional-knockout power". Montreal Gazette, August 28, 1994.
^ ab"'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.
^"Eighteenth annual filmfest looks like the strongest yet; Over 300 films from 60 countries". Montreal Gazette, August 10, 1994.
^"List of 1994 World Film Festival award winners". Montreal Gazette, September 6, 1994.
