DVD Features:
- Rated: G
- Closed captioning available
- Run Time: 1 hours, 24 minutes
- Video: Black & White
- Released: July 24, 2001
- Originally Released: 1970
- Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
- Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
- Packaging: Keep Case
- Aspect Ratio: Letterbox - 1.66
- Audio:
- Dolby Digital Mono - English
- Dolby Digital Mono - French
- Additional Release Material:
- Trailers: Original Theatrical Trailer
Performers, Cast and Crew:
Entertainment Reviews:
Sight and Sound - 10/01/2003
"...This quietly absorbing tale is as much a case study as a drama..."
Los Angeles Times - 01/09/2008
"[I]t is clearly one of the director's greatest achievements....It is richly evocative of the essential human mystery of who we are and how we came to be that way."
Wall Street Journal - 07/08/2011
"[A] rigorously beautiful, fact-based drama..."
Product Description:
A touching and philosophical film, set in the 18th century and based on the diaries of real-life French doctor Jean Itard. Itard fought authorities for the right to take charge of the social and intellectual education of a "wild child"--a young boy who somehow had managed to survive, alone and uncared for, in nature. Although most of the medical establishment felt that the child, who could not speak and often exhibited violent behavior, was hopelessly retarded, the tenacious Itard, with techniques sometimes kind and frequently cruel, managed to prove them wrong.
Plot Synopsis:
A touching and philosophical film, set in the 18th century and based on the diaries of real-life French doctor Jean Itard. Itard fought authorities for the right to take charge of the social and intellectual education of a "wild child" -- a young boy who somehow had managed to survive, alone and uncared for, in nature. Although most of the medical establishment felt that the child, who could not speak and often exhibited violent behavior, was hopelessly retarded, the tenacious Itard, with techniques sometimes kind and frequently cruel, managed to prove them wrong.
Plot Keywords:
Children |
Essential Cinema |
Recommended |
Theatrical Release |
True Story |
Wilderness
Production Notes:
- Theatrical Release: September 11, 1970
- The film is based on the writings of the real Dr. Jean Itard, "Mémoire et Rapport sur Victor de l'Aveyron" (1906).
The French script is published in "L'Avant-Scène du Cinéma, #107, October, 1970.
- The film was dedicated to actor Jean-Pierre Léaud, the young boy Truffaut had discovered and cast in his first film, "The Four Hundred Blows" -- and who continued to play Truffaut's cinematic alter-ego Antoine Doinel into adulthood.
- This was the first film that Nestor Almendros shot for François Truffaut. The pair continued to work together for many years after. Among the works they collaborated on were: "Bed and Board" (1970), "Two English Girls" (1971), "Day for Night" (1973), "The Story of Adèle H." (1975), "The Man Who Loved Women" (1977), "The Green Room" (1978) and "The Last Metro" (1980).
Based on 
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