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L’Enfant sauvage was an international critical hit for Truffaut following the misunderstood Mississippi Mermaid, and it endures as one of the director’s finest works. Based on the true story of a feral child discovered in the woods of Aveyron in 1798, the film reprises the medical reports of Dr. Jean Itard, who passionately took on the case for scientific research. Faithful to Itard’s texts, L’Enfant sauvage eschews emotionalism as it recounts the budding relationship between the boy and his doctor, played to great effect by Truffaut himself. In this “formidably beautiful film” (Urjo Kareda, Toronto Star), Jean-Pierre Cargol gives “an absolutely phenomenal performance” (Kareda) as Victor, the grubby, tousled-haired creature at risk of being locked up in a mental institution for his presumed “retardation.” Heir to The 400 Blows’ Antoine Doinel, played by Truffaut protégé Jean-Pierre Léaud (to whom L’Enfant sauvage is dedicated), Victor provides the director with his most ardent theme (aside from women!): the protection of children. Shot in luminous shades of grey by Néstor Almendros – who went on to shoot the subsequent nine Truffaut films – the film “confers some of the thoughtful calm of a Flemish painting” (Jan Dawson) while employing silent cinema techniques, especially the iris, in its elegant depiction of the period. Often considered Truffaut’s most polemical film, L’Enfant sauvage is a thematic and stylistic examination of dichotomies: of exterior and interior (with its effective use of window frames and doorways); civilization and wilderness; Paris and the countryside; science and nature; speech and silence; dark and light. In an interview given when the film opened the New York Film Festival, Truffaut said: “I did not want to spell out my message, which is simply this: man is nothing without other men.” Heeding his own wisdom, Truffaut assembled a stellar cast and