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The Wild Child (1970)
The Wild Child (1970) poster

The Wild Child (1970)

L'Enfant sauvage

Drama, History • 1h 25m

Director: François Truffaut

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Best English-friendly release · updated 1 year ago

Overview

In 1798, a feral boy is discovered outside the town of Aveyron, France. Diagnosed as mentally impaired, he is relegated to an asylum. A young doctor named Jean Itard becomes convinced that the boy has normal mental capacity, but that his development was hindered by lack of contact with society. He brings the boy home and begins an arduous attempt at education over several years.

Release details

Best Video Release

Kino Lorber Francois Truffaut set

France is same transfer 1080i no EN subs

TSPDT
2026: #772
2025: #749
2024: #756
2023: #743
2022: #743
Length
85 mins
Type
Movie

More from François Truffaut

See more →

Director: François Truffaut

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Blu-ray

Video Notes:

BFI Blu-ray has better encode than Criterion

Best Audio:

2001 MK2 DVD

Director: François Truffaut

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Best Video:

Criterion Blu-ray 2K transfer

Best Audio:

WB DVD

Director: François Truffaut

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · i.ibb.co (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> 2021 Carlotta France 4K Blu-ray. Carlotta has bad compression and elevated gamma levels, while Criterion shows more shadow details. See caps1 and caps2

Criterion actually handed the flawed MK2 master over to Prasad Corporation for "additional restoration" instead of working on it in-house.

Criterion 4K Blu-ray is another SDR grade inside an HDR container, with average brightness on HDR BL of 83 nits and 100-nit static DV. See fkid post

Best Audio:

2001 MK2 DVD

Director: François Truffaut

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion The Adventures of Antoine Doinel 4K set

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray has corrected gamma levels compared to Carlotta. See nicolas review

Director: François Truffaut

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Criterion Blu-ray (in The Adventures of Antoine Doinel boxdset) has major gamma issues. See caps

Director: François Truffaut

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion The Adventures of Antoine Doinel 4K Blu-ray set

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Carlotta, with debatable color gradings from master.

See nicolas review https://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=842821#p842821 
"Carlotta’s encodes were terrible with heavy blocking in the highlights and pervasive chroma noise. Criterion / NexSpec did much better and only occasionally struggles with skies. Grain is finely detailed and it doesn’t look filtered. Grading is debatable and particularly whether all three subsequent films (shot years apart by two cinematographers, one of them being the legendary Néstor Almendros) have roughly the same visual identity. Still, colors are adequately balanced with variations in the (yellowish) hues, there are no tints, black levels and shadow detail is excellent."

Director: François Truffaut

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion The Adventures of Antoine Doinel 4K Blu-ray set

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Carlotta, with debatable color gradings from master (yellow hues).

See nicolas review https://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=842821#p842821

"Carlotta’s encodes were terrible with heavy blocking in the highlights and pervasive chroma noise. Criterion / NexSpec did much better and only occasionally struggles with skies. Grain is finely detailed and it doesn’t look filtered. Grading is debatable and particularly whether all three subsequent films (shot years apart by two cinematographers, one of them being the legendary Néstor Almendros) have roughly the same visual identity. Still, colors are adequately balanced with variations in the (yellowish) hues, there are no tints, black levels and shadow detail is excellent."

Director: François Truffaut

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion The Adventures of Antoine Doinel 4K Blu-ray set

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Carlotta, with debatable color gradings from master.

See nicolas review https://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=842821#p842821

"Carlotta’s encodes were terrible with heavy blocking in the highlights and pervasive chroma noise. Criterion / NexSpec did much better and only occasionally struggles with skies. Grain is finely detailed and it doesn’t look filtered. Grading is debatable and particularly whether all three subsequent films (shot years apart by two cinematographers, one of them being the legendary Néstor Almendros) have roughly the same visual identity. Still, colors are adequately balanced with variations in the (yellowish) hues, there are no tints, black levels and shadow detail is excellent."

Director: François Truffaut

Best English-Friendly:

UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray

Best Video:

UK Artificial Eye vs France Carlotta no comparison

Director: François Truffaut

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Artificial Eye Blu-ray

Best Video:

Carlotta 4K Blu-ray

More from Kino Lorber

See more →

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode

Director: John Frankenheimer

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1994 MGM LaserDisc

Director: Paul Leni

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Theatrical/Original A negative: MoC Blu-ray

European C/D negative but better picture quality: Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

From DVDBeaver: The MoC Blu-ray is scanned from the American A negative, as opposed to the European C or D negatives used by Photoplay and others (Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray), so it is identical with the film US audiences saw in 1927

See caps for comparison

In addition, the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has sepia tinting throughout while the MoC Blu-ray has yellow for normal scenes, blue for night scenes, and some even green tintings.

Director: Lewis Teague

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Disappointing
Upcoming Release:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray disappointing

Best Audio:

R1 DVD

Audio Notes:

R1 DVD sounds best and has the original mono and a Dolby Stereo remix

Director: Hal Ashby

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has excellent master in SDR and a good encode. BD caps here.

Audio Notes:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor audio: The 2.0 is fine but unremarkable, the 5.1 is presumably an upmix with a botched, strongly raised LFE channel which makes the entire track unlistenable on well-tuned equipment. Audio graphs here.

Director: Miguel Sapochnik

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Director: Andreas Prochaska

Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray or Germany Blu-ray but no comparison available 

Germany Blu-ray doesn’t have good encoding, with visible blocking and banding etc.

Additional Info:

Germany Blu-ray lacks English subtitles. Kino Lorber Blu-ray has English subtitles but is OOP 

Kino Lorber Blu-ray retains both the French and German dialogue in their native languages.

Germany Blu-ray dubs over the French dialogue in German.

Director: Preston Sturges

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set

Video Notes:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray worse than Blu-ray with poor encoding (review)

Director: Norman Jewison

More Drama on Blu-ray

Director: Martin Scorsese

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Audio:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Audio Notes:

(same as all tracks since the DVD)

Best Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps

Video Notes:

Phenomenal disc, and perhaps the single greatest testament to NexSpec's positive 180 this year. Highlights are beautifully handled and grain structure is fully intact in areas where NexSpec's (and Pixelogic's) encodes would frequently fall apart in 2025 and before then. Criterion BD encode also looks to be robust from linked caps, save for this one frame: https://slow.pics/c/cMjMefmi

https://slow.pics/c/qQbJum0H

https://slow.pics/c/C3kJJZg0

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, new restoration/remastering of the mono mix which should be better than the 1999 WB DVD, revised colour timing to make the film look more like it did in 1987 and for the first time ever on physical media, the film will be in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

Best Audio:

1999 WB R1 DVD

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming on October 20th with FiM encode

Audio Notes:

DTS:X mix most closely approximates original surround mix

Additional Info:

Criterion DVD has additional features not found on the 4K Blu-ray

Director: Leos Carax

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Kino BD has original stereo mix.

Director: F. W. Murnau

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

MoC OOP Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Flicker Alley 4K confirmed for 2027 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24404584&postcount=1

Directors: Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Sources: filmalert101.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

FiM encode and none of the low-pass filtering present on the Criterion 4K, resulting in more detail and better handling of highlights on Imprint https://filmalert101.blogspot.com/2026/09/on-4k-uhd-david-hare-rhapsodizes-over.html?m=1

Director: John Huston

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1992 MGM VHS

Director: Yasujirō Ozu

Best English-Friendly & Video:

2020 BFI Blu-ray

Best Audio:

2005 Raro DVD

Director: Charles Burnett

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Criterion Blu-ray new restored 4K digital transfer approved by Charles Burnett

Best Audio:

iTunes version from 2018 see blah-ray

Director: Jerry Schatzberg

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Signal One UK Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Gorgeously filmic 2K remaster supervised and approved by Jerry Schatzberg from Fox and flawlessly encoded by FiM.

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· last reviewed 1 year ago

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