Product Description

Acclaimed OscarÂ(r)-nominated* director François Truffaut (Small Change, Day for Night) has created an absorbing (Leonard Maltin) film about the true-life tale of a young boy found living alone in the woods of France in the 1700s. Using actual journal entries, Truffaut not only directed and co-wrote the script with Jean Gruault, but also starred as the unflappable Doctor Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, the visionary who takes on the incredible task of civilizing The Wild Child. At The National Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in Paris, a barely clothed and dirty young boy is admitted. Found in a forest, the child is unable to speak, communicate or function in society. Christened Victor by the hospital staff, his case is taken up by Doctor Itard (Truffaut),a lone physician who has an unyielding dedication to re-integrating the lad into society. But the road to tame the beast is a rocky one and Itard will have to work tirelessly to teach Victor how to re-claim his place in the world even if it means staking his reputation on it! *1974: Dayfor Night

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23092 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-07-24
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 83 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
François Truffaut's fascinating 1969 film, based on a real-life, 18th-century behavioral scientist's efforts to turn a feral boy into a civilized specimen, is an ingenious and poignant experience. In a piece of resonant casting that immediately turns this story into an echo of the creative process, Truffaut himself plays Dr. Itard, a specialist in the teaching of the deaf. Itard takes in a young lad (Jean-Pierre Cargol) found to have been living like an animal in the woods all his life. In the spirit of social experiment, Itard uses rewards and punishments to retool the boy's very existence into something that will impress the world. Beautifully photographed in black and white and making evocative use of such charmingly antiquated filmmaking methods as the iris shot, The Wild Child has a semidocumentary form that barely veils Truffaut's confessional slant. What does it mean to turn the raw material of life into a monument to one's own experience and bias? The question has all sorts of intriguing reverberations when one considers that Truffaut's own wild childhood was rescued by love of the cinema and that a degree of verisimilitude factors into his films starring Jean-Pierre Leaud--the troubled lad who grew up in Truffaut's work from The 400 Blows onward. (The Wild Child is dedicated to Leaud.) --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Boy gone wild!
No-frills, pared-to-the-bone film by Francois Truffaut concerning the true story of a "savage" pubescent who was captured in a forest in France, living like a beast. The story takes place at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, but, rather curiously, Truffaut makes no political commentary about post-Terror France. All in all, this is a rather excellent idea, one to be emulated by other period-piece makers who clog their movies with "historical figures", famous events, or other data that don't have much to do with whatever story they're telling. Here, Truffaut sticks strictly to the point. (A miracle, considering this director's track-record!) Scarcely deviating from the source-material -- a journal by the doctor who took responsibility for the child, domesticated him, and attempted to train him up into a proper little Frenchman -- the director lets the story itself do all the work. The documentary-feel to the the movie brings many interesting themes, one by one, to the surface. Not the least of which is the relativism of "happiness". Bored of the endless lessons ("match this shape with this object", etc.), the boy runs off only to discover the forest has been spoiled for him forever by the doting doctor and his maid, by the delicious food, by the comfortable sleeping quarters, by the glasses of water and milk, and so on. He returns home willingly, but his face, upon hearing the doctor say, "Tomorrow, we resume our lessons," says it all. (This movie makes a thematic companion-piece to Nicolas Roeg's pessimistic *Walkabout*.) Also of note is that Truffaut reverts to black & white in this film (it was made in 1970), perhaps because he was concerned that the soft, lovely colors of the French countryside would encourage sentimentality. Indeed: the rather grim B&W photography, the clinical approach to the material, the serious implications underlying the story, and even his own wooden performance as the doctor, all combine to shoo away happy-ending seekers.

Underrated Truffaut
There may be another Francois Truffaut film about a boy coping with traumatic surroundings - 1959's "The 400 Blows" - which is far better known (and arguably his greatest), but an equally personal, affecting work is the film made 10 years later, "The Wild Child". Based on a true case of the late 1700's, it examines a doctor's attempts to educate a 10 year old mute boy found living among the elements in a French forest. Having been abandoned by his parents since infancy, the child must learn to adapt to civilized society and, through his efforts, forms a bond with the caring doctor. The film's fittingly archaic tone is actualized by the grainy black and white photography. Truffaut (in one of his few starring film roles) is natural as the resolute doctor; his earnest curiosity is appealing. Jean-Pierre Cargol, in the titular part, is particularly impressive; In what superficially appears to be a simple role (maladroit, non-human movements, dialogue basically limited to high-pitched grunts), his unmannered presence imbues the film with a near-documentarian authenticity. Another gratifying personal film from a leading director of the French New Wave.

Deserves to be Discovered
"The Wild Child" was directed by Francois Truffaut and released in 1970. Truffaut has made some extraordinary movies, such as the Antoine Doinel series and "Jules et Jim." Unfortunately, this movie is given relatively little recognition, even though it truly is first-rate. Based on a true story, the movie concerns Victor, l'enfant sauvage - a boy found in the wilds of France. Truffaut cast himself as Dr. Jean Itard an 18th century physician who helps "tame" and educate the boy. Initially branded an "idiot" and uneducable by local townspeople, Victor is helped immensely by Dr. Itard through his humane treatment.

The story is fascinating and quite gripping. In addition, the movie raises interesting questions regarding "civilized" behavior and ethics, as it compares Victor to various people in the town. Although similar stories has been told elsewhere (e.g., Herzog's "Every Man for Himself"), Truffaut manages to put his own interesting spin on the tale. Further, his direction is masterful, and he won Best Director from the National Board of Review. The film was made in black and white, which adds great realism to the story - it looks terrific (It won Best Cinematography from the National Society of Film Critics). The only debit is the lack of DVD extras.