At the moment, at this very nanosecond, the best movie in town is "The Wild Child" (1970), Francois Truffaut's wondrous account of the real-life Dr. Itard who systematically studied, educated, and in his own way loved Victor, a feral boy discovered in the French woods in 1799. Exquisitely photographed in black-and-white by that cinematographic master Nestor Almendros, the film starring Truffaut himself as the methodical Itard and Jean-Pierre Cargol as the playful Victor, uses silent-movie techniques (irising in and out of scenes) that make it resemble an artifact from the distant past.
Like Arthur Penn's comparably moving "The Miracle Worker" (1962), "The Wild Child" is an adult film that children very much enjoy because of the delicacy by which it characterizes teacher and student. It leaves open the question of whether Victor is natural being uncontaminated by civilization or Dr. Itard (whose techniques formed the foundation of the Montessori method) civilized the isolated caveboy. (The natural-versus-civilized conflict is likewise the basis of other celebrated student/teacher stories such as "Pygmalion" and its musical version, "My Fair Lady."
Though I had hoped that "The Wild Child" would enjoy an open-ended theatrical run, it's playing only through Thursday at the Ritz/Bourse. You could rent it on the DVD, but seeing it on a big screen is the only way to catch all the detail Truffaut gracefully packs within a frame. See it before it leaves. Take your kids. Borrow someone else's.
In the meantime, your favorite screen teachers and students?
There are so many great teacher/student films, but one that sticks out is "Mr.Holland's Opus" -- there wasn't anything he wouldn't do to help a student (even while neglecting his own son). In the last 30 years or so Hollywood has portrayed teachers in two ways: either a superstar instructor who changes lives or the bureaucratic stuffed shirt who makes lives miserable for students. It would be nice to see a film about a teacher who's in between the two extremes. JC— jonc- Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller in Pygmalion.— ccjroberts
- My favorite teacher film is a VERONICO CRUZ, a little-known, little seen gem from 1998. (It was Argentina's Oscar entry that year). A young boy in rural 1970s Argentina learns about the world and searches for his father when the government appoints a teacher to the region. The teacher, of course, learns from the villagers. It's a beautiful, inspiring, heartbreaking film.— garyk
- No question, hands down, best teacher was Mr. Chips, (the Robert Donat version) Close second, Sidney Poitier in "To Sir With Love" And favorite students were those precocious young women who followed..and then abandoned...Jean Brodie (the magnificent Maggie Smith)— Christine
- I don't know if it's my favorite, but I found Jack Black's music teacher in "School of Rock" surprisingly endearing. And, in his own weird way, Ray Walston's Mr. Hand in "Fast Times at Ridgmont High" was, if nothing else, unique. Who else could find a way to get Jeff Spiccoli to understand Thomas Jefferson?— wwolfe
- Jennifer Jones in Henry Koster's "Good Morning, Miss Dove," from Fox in 1955.— Pash
- Excellent choices all. Any love for Edward James Olmos in "Stand and Deliver"?— carrierickey
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