The Wild Child

A glorious work. [26 Dec 2008, p.C7]

Film classic about a doctor and his efforts to break through to a young boy (Jean-Pierre Cargol) who has grown up in the woods. [15 Feb 2009, p.F6]

Probably the director's most ambitious film, The Wild Child spins a modern myth with resonances for parents and children, teachers and students, and even filmmakers, actors and audiences.

It progresses slowly but absorbingly. Truffaut underplays but exudes an interior tenderness and dedication. The boy is amazingly and intuitively well played by a tousled gypsy tyke named Jean-Pierre Cargol. Everybody connected with this unusual, off-beat film made in black-and-white rates kudos.

It's as lucid and wryly witty a film as you could wish for, uncluttered by superfluous period detail. A beautiful use of simple techniques - black-and-white photography, Vivaldi music, even devices as outmoded as the iris - give it a very refreshing quality.

A typical older male mentore story...told with sensitivity and perceptiveness.

One of Francois Truffaut's best middle-period films, albeit one of his darkest and most conservative.