MFAH The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

MFAH Films honors the prolific François Truffaut

Truffaut on Childhood: The Wild Child

Truffaut on Childhood

The Wild Child (L’enfant sauvage)

September 13 & 14

The Wild Child
Saturday, September 13, 7 p.m.
Sunday, September 14, 5 p.m.
Directed by François Truffaut
(France, 1970, 83 min., in French with English subtitles)

Throughout the fall, MFAH Films honors the prolific François Truffaut on the 30th anniversary of his death.

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. Adopting an austere cinematic technique, Truffaut unfolds his story with directness and simplicity.

“Francois Truffaut was not only a founder of the French New Wave, he was a passionate and keen chronicler of young people, how they grew and evolved and sought purpose in a larger world.”Kansas City Star