Francois Truffaut’s kindness and curiosity were much noted in his productive yet relatively short life (he died in 1984 at the age of 52). His interviews with Alfred Hitchcock a few years after hanging up his critical spurs and only a couple films into his career made an important book, but the hours of unedited conversation between the two directors that you can find on the Internet are even more endearing: some questions that seem silly as they’re translated back-and-forth between French and English are quietly effective, whether for his effusion or for the older man’s instinct about what the young director is hoping to ferret out. Truffaut was 38 when “The Wild Child” was released, and it was the first time he’d acted. While his comic performance in “Day for Night” as a harried film director is esteemed by many, and the little-seen “The Green Room” is especially haunted, his tutorial knack as the teacher of an eighteenth-century feral foundling is graceful, and holds heartening echoes of his own belligerent, malcontent childhood, from which he was extricated by his own father figure, critic Andre Bazin. How do we survive childhood? Do we listen, do we learn? When do we stop resisting? How do we make our way in the world? Comparisons to his debut feature, the autobiographical “The 400 Blows,” are inescapable. Cinematographer Nestor Almendros’ black-and-white light is astonishing. 83m. Restored 35mm print. (Ray Pride)
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