L' Enfant sauvage

Based on a true story. It takes place in 1798, when the wild child of the title – a boy of about age eleven – is discovered living like an animal in the woods. He can’t walk upright or speak, and he appears to be deaf. He quickly becomes a celebrity freak, and some lazy doctors decide that he's beyond help, but Dr. Itard (François Truffaut) believes that he can civilize the boy, whom he calls Victor. It’s likely that Truffaut, who loved films and loved being a film director, was looking at the relationship between actor and director. So, in casting himself as Itard, he saw the character as a kind of director, working with an actor, shaping his performance and pushing it in demanding and even cruel directions for the sake of great art. (Jeffrey M. Anderson)