Truffaut's The Wild Child January 18, 2010

The Coolidge Corner Theatre's Science on Screen series kicks off 2010 with a special screening of François Truffaut's cinema classic The Wild Child (L'enfant sauvage). This deeply moving film, beautifully shot in black and white, is based on the true story of a feral boy found wandering naked and alone in the forests of southern France in 1798. Unable to speak, communicate, or function in society, the boy is taken to the National Institute for the Deaf in Paris, where he attracts the attention of a doctor named Jean Itard (played to great effect by Truffaut himself). Itard brings the boy, whom he christens Victor, into his home, where he attempts to teach him language and a sense of morality, with mixed results.

Introducing the film with a talk on language acquisition is Dr. Judy Shepard-Kegl, a professor of linguistics at the University of Southern Maine, where she also directs the Signed Language Research Laboratory. Dr. Shepard-Kegl's work ties into the film on many levels, including the fact that many of the deaf individuals she studies were language isolates when she first came into contact with them.

Official Website: http://www.coolidge.org