 |
| Jean-Pierre
Cargol, François Truffaut, Françoise Seigner, Jean Dasté |
|
 |
Anamorphic
widescreen |
|
Dolby Digital
5.1 |
|
DTS |
|
 |
Trailer(s) |
|
Featurette(s) |
|
Documentary |
|
Audio commentary
|
|
Deleted scenes
|
|
Concept art
/ storyboards |
|
Multi-angle
feature |
|
|
|
|
Dr. Itard (François Truffaut):
Victor just invented something. Victor is an inventor. One must
have suffered all the anguish of such teaching, followed and directed
this child in his laborious progress, from the first act of attention
to this spark of imagination, to comprehend the joy I feel.
An early 19th-century doctor takes charge
of a child who grew up in the wild.
 During
his most prolific and successful years as a film director in the
late 1960s, François Truffaut took on double duty as director and
lead actor in this adaptation of a true 19th-century clinical case.
The unsentimental but deeply affecting sense of compassion he emitted
so convincingly in the role of Dr. Itard was eventually what prompted
Spielberg to cast him as Claude Lacombe in Close Encounters
of the Third Kind. Carefully avoiding false sentiment and
anachronistic contemporaroy ideas about pedagogy, he crafted a
mesmerizing picture about human compassion that clearly served
as an influence on David Lynch's The Elephant Man. Truffaut
is actually so consientious about avoiding anything artificial
or overly emotional that his film does run the risk of distancing
the audience a little too much. But careful viewing is rewarded
by a moving tale, graced by fine performances and a marvellous
classical score. |
|
 |
 |
|
|
Identical releases are available
for Region 1 and Region 2.
The non-anamorphic widescreen
image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 1.66:1. Image
quality on this release is problematic: Truffaut used specific
film stocks and shooting techniques to achieve a visual
look that looks deliberately archaic, including irising
in and out on details within the shot. This style gives
the image a hazy quality with poorly distinguished detail,
which is aggravated by the lack of anamorphic enhancement
to the transfer. There is also quite a large amount of damage
to the print, including scratches, debris and large, obtrusive
reel change marks.
The mono sound
mix, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, is nearly as dated as
the print, with a severely restricted dynamic range and occasional
heavy distortion. But there isn't as much damage to the soundtrack
as there is to video.
Unfortunately, the sole extra
on this release is the theatrical trailer.
Some further background on the film's factual background
or production history would have been most welcome. A
standard static menu screen offers access to the disc's severely
limited features.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
August 28, 2003
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Wild Child.
Click here
to return to the front page.
|
|
| |
