Themes: Fish Out of Water, Orphans, Teachers and Students
Main Cast: Jean-Pierre Cargol, François Truffaut, Jean Dasté, Françoise Seigner, Paul Ville
Release Year: 1970
Country: FR/IT
Run Time: 85 minutes
Plot
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 may drive Victor further into himself, Dr. Itard brings the boy to his own home, hoping to establish a communication base with kindness and compassion. Once he has taught Victor how to listen and respond, Itard takes it upon himself to imbue the boy with a sense of morality. Adopting an austere cinematic technique (at times reminiscent of silent films), Truffaut unfolds his story with directness and simplicity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Often overlooked in the François Truffaut canon, L'Enfant Sauvage is clearly the work of the man who made The 400 Blows and Small Change. Like both those masterpieces, it is sensitively attuned to the rhythms of childhood, but it is also a more austere and almost formal work. Casting himself as Dr. Itard, the bachelor physician who takes in an abandoned boy and tries to civilize him, Truffaut the actor is appropriately stiff, and the film's view of "Victor," the title character, is one of detached sympathy. Truffaut the director's use of black-and-white cinematography and irises suggests an affinity for silent film, and indeed, much of the story's power derives from its imagery rather than dialogue. (That's of necessity, since the story focuses almost entirely on two characters, one of whom cannot speak.) The film's philosophical undercurrent -- is Itard, the man of science, going to have his way with the savage right out of the pages of Rousseau? -- are never pushed too hard, because, as he always does in his best work, Truffaut is more interested in the emotional content of his characters. Another plus is the use of Antonio Vivaldi's elegant, moving music to reinforce both those qualities in the film. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Claude Miller - Monsieur Lemeri; Robert Cambourakis - Peasant; Tounet Cargol - Child at Farm; Eric Dolbert - Child at Farm; Frédérique Dolbert - Child at Farm; Pierre Fabre - Orderly at Institute; Jean Gruault - Visitor at Institute; Gitt Magrini - Peasant; Annie Miller - Mme. Lemeri; Nathan Miler - Lemeri Baby; Guillaume Schiffman - Child at Farm; Mathieu Schiffman - Child at Farm; Mlle. Theaudiere - Child at Farm; Ewa Truffaut - Child at Farm; Laura Truffaut - Child at Farm; Jean Mandaroux - Doctor Attending Itard; Jean-François Stévenin - Peasant; René Levert - Police Offical
Credit
Jean Mandaroux - Art Director, Gitt Magrini - Costume Designer, François Truffaut - Director, Agnès Guillemot - Editor, Antoine Duhamel - Composer (Music Score), Nicole Felix - Makeup, Néstor Almendros - Cinematographer, Marcel Berbert - Producer, Jean Gruault - Screenwriter, François Truffaut - Screenwriter, Antonio Vivaldi - Featured Music, Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard - Short Story Author
One summer day in 1798, a naked boy eleven or twelve years of age (Jean-Pierre Cargol) is found in a forest in the rural district of Aveyron in southern France. Living like a wild animal and unable to speak or understand language, the child has apparently grown up in solitude in the forest since an early age. He is brought to Paris and initially placed in a school for "deaf-mutes". Dr. Jean Marc Gaspard Itard (François Truffaut) observes the boy and believes that he is neither deaf nor, as some of his colleagues do, an "idiot". Itard thinks the boy's behavior is a result of his deprived environment, and that he can be educated.
Itard takes custody of the boy, whom he eventually names Victor, and removes him to his house on the outskirts of Paris. There, under the patient tutelage of the doctor and his housekeeper (Françoise Seigner), Victor gradually becomes socialized and acquires the rudiments of language.
There is a narrow margin between the civilized aspects of rough Parisian life and the brutal laws of life in nature. Victor finds a sort of equilibrium in the windows that mark the transition between the closed interiors and the world outside. But Victor gains his ability to have social relations by losing his capacity to live as a savage.
The screenwriter Jean Gruault and the director François Truffaut were inspired by the early nineteenth-century journal of Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, which was based on the true events surrounding The Wild Boy of Aveyron, as the boy was called.
Cast
Jean-Pierre Cargol as Victor, l'enfant sauvage (the wild child)
Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review and discussed the film's theme is one of Truffaut's favorites. He wrote, "The story is essentially true, drawn from an actual case in 18th Century France, and Truffaut tells it simply and movingly. It becomes his most thoughtful statement on his favorite subject: The way young people grow up, explore themselves, and attempt to function creatively in the world...Truffaut places his personal touch on every frame of the film. He wrote it, directed it, and plays the doctor himself. It is an understated, compassionate performance, a perfect counterpoint to Jean-Pierre Cargol's ferocity and fear...So often movies keep our attention by flashy tricks and cheap melodrama; it is an intellectually cleansing experience to watch this intelligent and hopeful film."[2]
The staff at Variety magazine also praised the drama, and wrote, "This is a lucid, penetrating detailing of a young doctor's attempt to civilize a retarded boy found living in the woods in Southern France in the 18th century. Though based on a true case [Jean Itard's Memoire et Rapport sur Victor de L'Aveyron, published in 1806], it eschews didactics and creates a poetic, touching and dignified relationship between the doctor and his savage charge...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."[3]
Awards
Wins
National Board of Review: NBR Award, Best Director, François Truffaut; Best Foreign Language Film, France; 1971.
National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA: NSFC Award, Best Cinematography, Néstor Almendros; 1971.
