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The Wild Child(L'Enfant sauvage)

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France · 1970
Rated G · 1h 23m
Director François Truffaut
Starring Jean-Pierre Cargol, François Truffaut, Françoise Seigner, Jean Dasté
Genre Drama, History

Based on a true story, this film follows the discovery of a feral child who's grown up in the forest in late-18th-century France. Once the boy is discovered, deaf specialist Dr. Jean Itard tries to civilize the boy, teaching him to walk, speak and read.

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90

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.

80

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.

100

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.

88

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.

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