Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #126. Wilcox – Denis Côté

Wilcox

Quebec’s Denis Côté looks to be ready with two new titles for 2019, the second of which will be Wilcox. Produced by Annie St-Pierre and photographed by Francois Messier-Rheault (who served as cinematographer on Cote’s A Skin So Soft in 2017 as well as 2019’s Ghost Town Anthology), Guillaume Tremblay (a minor player in the 2011 hit Starbuck) is in the cast of the extremely minimalist production. Locarno provided Côté with his first major platform, where he won an award for 2005’s Drifting States, returning in 2007 with Our Private Lives and winning Best Director for 2008’s All That She Wants and another Best Director win for 2010’s Curling. He returned to the Locarno competition in 2017 with his documentary A Skin So Soft. In 2009, Côté premiered Carcasses in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and competed in Berlin with 2013’s Vic+Flo Saw a Bear (winning the Alfred Bauer Award) and again in 2016 with Boris Without Beatrice.

Gist: The plot of Wilcox is reminiscent of mid-2000s indie features from Gus Van Sant, such as Gerry (2002). A solitary and mysterious man strolls along the roads, infiltrates the abandoned places and lets the days go by as one lets a story write itself. The only certainty may be the name on his camouflage jacket, Wilcox.

Release Date/Prediction: With Répertoire des villes disparues premiering in Berlin, Wilcox was filmed over several days in October 2018 and could likely be Cote’s sixth time competing in Locarno.