Average Rating: 8.4/10
Reviews Counted: 27
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 8.5/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 3,579
Based on a real-life case study, recorded in Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard's 1806 volume Memoire et Rapport sur Victor de L'Aveyron, The Wild Child is spiritually in line with François Truffaut's other films about the pains of adolescence. Truffaut himself plays Dr. Jean Itard, a doctor working at Paris' Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. Itard takes on the challenge of Victor (Jean-Pierre Cargol), a nonverbal "wild boy" found abandoned in the woods. Realizing that the Institute's rather cruel methods
Feb 26, 1970 Wide
Jul 24, 2001
United Artists
All Critics (28) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (0)
The Wild Child is fascinating not only for its Tarzan-like true-life story, but also for what it says about the process of nurturing and educating children, and the tools we use -- language, discipline, affection -- to do so.
Nearly four decades after its release, The Wild Child remains startling for its humane clarity, for Nestor Almendros's brilliant black-and-white photography, and for the sense that Truffaut is achieving filmmaking mastery on a very small scale.
An enduring film of enchanting and provocative revelation.
Nearly 40 years after its initial release, Francois Truffaut's The Wild Child (L'Enfant Sauvage) still manages to cast its haunting, poetic spell.
Rather than present a clichéd fall from grace, Truffaut elicits ambivalence by closely tracking the Enlightened scientist's optimism; after the fascination, our inchoate sadness seeps in.
Everybody connected with this unusual, off-beat film made in black-and-white rates kudos.
Top CriticMakes a heartfelt entry in Truffaut's filmography, yet another story of an unwanted kid.
Francois Truffaut was not only a founder of the French New Wave, he was a passionate and keen chronicler of young people, how they grew and evolved and sought purpose in a larger world.
A fascinating film, with an astonishing performance by young Cargol.
Truffaut plays Itard, a representative of the Age of Reason who never questions the benefits of civilization...Truffaut the filmmaker is more suspicious of Itard's motives...
Truffaut never upstages the astounding Cargol; both performers underplay in perfect harmony, turning the story into a duet of paternal affection and paradise lost.
Offers a reassuring liberal outlook that has the hubris to think that one can cure anyone who is ill with proper education and treatment.
A deeply moving film.
often overlooked film will stimulate educators and anyone interested in the learning process
Many have criticised Francois Truffaut for making Wild Child, claiming that the film is far too clinical but is also of a subject matter that he wasn't academically capable of telling correctly. Many people criticised David Lynch in exactly the same way when he made The Elephant Man, which is now regarded as a classic
November 22, 2011Super Reviewer
Based on the subject and the director's nationality, I assumed that this film would be some kind of restatement or exploration of Rousseau's "noble savage" theory, and though there is some of this discussion in one or two lines, the film doesn't spend much time juxtaposing modernity and the "wild"
February 26, 2011
Super Reviewer
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