The Wild Child (1970)

Old, undiscovered, really good movie

This is an old movie black & white but great all the same. The boy who plays the part was perfect, as if he was made for the role. October 27, 2007

lait et eau

Done in a low-key docu-feature style by a man with child's soul. The untamed warmness of Victor perfectly counterbalance the civilized coldness of Itard. Truffaut does not try to justify anything. One of his best. May 31, 2007

My Favorite Francois Truffault's Film

Provocative, engaging, and moving, this movie is an absolute wonder - elegant, artful, with breathtaking use of Vivaldi's music, with amazing performance form Jeanne-Pierre Cargol as a Wild Child of the title, the young boy who was found living in the forest outside a village in 1790th France. Based on the book of the physician Itard (played by Francois Truffault) who took the boy in and tried to teach him how to live among humans. The contrast between the narrator's (Itard's) passionless voice and his growing emotional attachment to the boy is heartbreaking.

"The Wild Child" is my favorite Truffault's film - I think it is much stronger than his more popular "400 Blows". Highly recommended

April 15, 2007

The Wild Child

1970, black and white, French with English subtitles. I spent my teen years in Tampa, Florida, which enjoys a fine independent film scene, but I never saw a single one. I was washing dishes for minimum wage, okay? So, for the last time, I'm no art film snob. Don't be on my case because I watch movies with subtitles sometimes. I watched HERO that way. It really sucked. It really, really, really sucked. Not like a Hoover. Like a black hole.

True story. In the late 1700s, a boy who was roughly eleven years old was found living in the woods. He'd been there eight or so years. Jonathan Swift's yahoos in all their glory, and perhaps the basis for every jungle boy myth before and after Tarzan. As an amateur teacher myself, I would NOT want to be the one educating this child. The guy who took on the job left journals, and they're the basis for this movie. Realism was the obvious goal, and it was achieved.

Consider this. Fiction loves to look at humanity from perspectives outside ourselves. STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. Mr Spock. Kwai Chang Caine. Data. BABYLON 5. Odo. THE WILD CHILD covers a lot of ground, subtly, in under 90 minutes. I'd love to know how they found this child actor who always looked more comfortable on four legs than on two. I'll watch this one again.

After you've enjoyed the film -- not before -- watch the trailer they showed in the USA in 1970. It's on the DVD. You will laugh your butt off. HAMLET, as sold by Barnum and Bailey barkers. Clueless marketing morons are a constant in every age. Conga line of suckholes.
August 29, 2006

The first signals !

This is an absolutely and concise essay on teaching and eventually giving of love .
A baby is abandoned in the woods of France and discovered in 1797 , by a local farmer. It does not do either film justice to suggest this a agallic version of the Miracle worker due both films ride in diferent directions .
Truffaut himself plays the role of a Dr who undertook the challenging task of training the brutish child .
Based on a Itard 's journal , this film is one of the most ambitious in the formidable career of this French filmmaker. October 19, 2004

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