The Wild Child
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DVD details
Actor: Eric Dolbert, Jean Dast?, Jean-Pierre Cargol, Robert Cambourakis, Tounet CargolBrand: TRUFFAUT,FRANCOIS
Primary Contributor: Jean-Pierre Cargol
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 83 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-07-24
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of The Wild Child
DVD Review: Excellent film
Summary: 4 Stars
The Wild Child is a film that resurfaces the true story of a young boy who is found living wild along the French countryside. The boy is like an animal in the sense he is untamed, self reliant, has a fear of humans, bares no clothing, and is accustomed to the elements of nature. The film begins with the capturing the eleven year old boy and his subsequent introduction to the civilized world. The child's fascinating story makes newspaper headlines in 1798 and among the many Parisians whose interest is sparked is that of a doctor played by Truffaut himself. Interested in studying the boy and discovering his potential, the doctor takes the young ruffian into his own home and begins a methodical series of learning experiments.
Truffaut uses this remarkable story and creates a wonderful film set in the late eighteenth century. He also avoids the all too common trap of over dramatizing a film set in this era and simply concentrates on the subject matter at hand - the discovery of a wild youth and his introduction into civilized world. The film is beautifully shot and Truffaut's simplistic narrative keeps the viewer's attention at all times. Although one of Truffaut's most unique films, The Wild Child is not quite a masterpiece, but has much merit and is definitely worth viewing.
DVD Review: Wild child - subdued movie.
Summary: 4 Stars
The Wild Child has such a mild and subdued tone overall that at times it seems to muffle even the chaotic screeches and chimp-like antics of the wild boy, Victor. Vivaldi's airy refined baroque harmonies imbue the story with the quaint elegance of an old-fashioned miniature painting. Even though the movie was filmed in black and white, the pastoral scenes suggest a world of vibrant color, but a very domesticated one. Truffaut's portrayal of Dr. Itard, the boy's teacher is a paragon of cultured respectability and good intentions. So is that of Madame Guerin, the doctor's housekeeper, who becomes Victor's surrogate mother. This wild child who was found naked in a forest, abandoned at an early age, could neither speak nor focus his attention any more than an animal. Against this wildness was brought to bear the genteel but insistent demand of Dr. Itard that Victor learn to function according to the civilized standards of France,circa 1799. Needless to say, this engendered a conflict between the good doctor and his young charge. But even this rebellion amongst broken dishes and bitten hands still seems somewhat restrained from the out-and-out total war that you might expect from such a confrontation. And there is no indication given of how the doctor and his housekeeper managed with getting Victor housebroken. The point I'm trying to make is that this seems to be a somewhat idealized account of a true story that would probably have been a little messier in reality. But when Truffaut decided to make this movie, he was no doubt impelled by a motive other than just creating a factual documentary. Its a good exploration of what makes us human. This story makes it clear that the determining factor is our early and continuous association with others of our kind. Humanity is not instinctual but must be passed on through the generations by instruction and example. And although civilization is not perfect(shown by the persecution of Victor by other more normal children)if we are isolated from it, we cannot rise above the level of animals. Still, Victor retains a wistful longing for the open wild, and one of the more memorable ,less subdued scenes is of Victor swaying hypnotically on the doctor's lawn and seemingly worshiping the moon. So, civilization comes at the cost of forfeiting some of the wild, spontaneous joy of an untamed existence. The Wild Child, though it seems a trifle remote because of its refined style, is a very well-intentioned film and is refreshingly free of the crassness and vulgarity that seem to be obligatory in today's Hollywood fare.DVD Review: Good show and good music.
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this movie years ago and immediately found it to be a movie worth watching; the story line is authentic in its historical facts and Vivaldi's music brings out the beauty of compassion when made reality among the least fortunate. I have seen it several times since.DVD Review: Old, undiscovered, really good movie
Summary: 5 Stars
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.DVD Review: lait et eau
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Description of The Wild Child
Acclaimed Oscar?(r)-nominated* director Fran??ois 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 NightFran?ois 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
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