Summary
France, 1798. In a forest, hunters discover and capture a 12 year old boy who appears
to have spent his life living like a wild animal. He is taken to a school for deaf
and dumb children in Paris, where is maltreated and used as an object of scientific curiosity.
An eminent doctor, Jean Itard, takes an interest in the strange child and resolves to
educate him. Little by little, the feral child, whom Itard christens Victor, responds
to his benefactor’s patient attempts to civilise him.
Review
When this film was released in France in 1970, it was not only a surprising success with
both the critics and the paying public (Truffaut himself believed the film would flop
because of its austere, documentary style). The film also raised the profile of
child protection issues, giving Truffaut a platform to air his views on the subject.
The film is based on the real-life case history of Jean Itard, which was reported in a
book entitled Les Enfants sauvages, mythe et réalité by Lucien Malson,
a professor of social psychology. Itard’s case notes relate in some detail
how he adopted a savage child and managed to rehabilitate him into civilised society.
Fascinated by the story, which struck an immediate chord with him, Truffaut decided to
make it into a film, opting for a documentary style which bears a striking similarity
to Robert Bresson’s films such as Mouchette and Au Hasard Balthazar.
The film benefits greatly from Nestor Almendros' simplistic photography, an approach which
seems perfectly in tune with Truffaut's style as a director. This was the first
film in a long and successful collaboration between Almendros and Truffaut.
By telling a very simple story which focuses on individual acts involving a small number
of people, Truffaut manages to create on of his most stirring and compelling works.
Truffaut himself plays the enlightened Dr Itard. Although the director was at first
reluctant to take on the role, it is hard to imagine anyone who could have played the
part better.
Truffaut’s greatest strength as a director was his unerring ability to capture on
screen the intensity of human interactions, encompassing the full spectrum, from the brutality
of rejection to the tenderness of paternal affection. This film demonstrates that
particular trait more clearly than any other of his films.
This is a film that says so much about the nobility of the human spirit, and it achieves
this with the absolute minimum of event and dialogue. Only a true master of the
cinematographic medium could achieve such a result so effortlessly. Truffaut manages to
do precisely that with consummate humility and wisdom.
Truffaut chose to dedicate this film to his own wild child, Jean-Pierre Léaud.
When they first met on the making of Les Quatre cents coups, Léaud was a
rebellious adolescent. Under Truffaut's tutelage, he became a successful and greatly
respected actor.
© James Travers 2002
See also:
The life of François Truffaut
Les 400 coups
Tirez sur le pianiste
Jules et Jim
Farenheit 451
Baisers volés
Le Dernier métro
Buy films by François Truffaut
More about the French New Wave
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