The Wild Child(L'Enfant sauvage)

Variety by

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.

Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum

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

Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas

An enduring film of enchanting and provocative revelation. [09 Jan 2009, p.E15]

Village Voice by Nicolas Rapold

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.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

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.

Boston Globe by Ty Burr

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.

The New York Times by Vincent Canby

Unlike any other film Truffaut has ever made, yet only Truffaut could have made it. It is a lovely, pure film. And it may be a classic.