Corrigan, Timothy and Patricia White.
The Film Experience: An Introduction.
Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2004. Comprehensive text on film concepts and techniques.
De Baecque, Antoine and Serge Toubiana.
Truffaut.
Trans. Catherine Temerson.
California: University of California Press, 1999. Excellent biography of Truffaut, with great information about the two films of this unit, as well as about Truffaut's troubled youth. This book really brings the person behind the films to life.
Gerstein, Mordicai.
The Wild Boy: Based on a True Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. Written for children ages 4-8, it is interesting to compare and contrast what is included and omitted in this story as opposed to the film version and the intellectual account of the "Wild Boy of Aveyron".
Insdorf, Annette.
François Truffaut.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989. A well-respected biography of Truffaut, who thought well of the author, as evidenced in letters written to her, published in his book of letters,
Correspondence.
Jacob, Gilles and Claude de Givray.
François Truffaut: Correspondence 1945-1984.
New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000. An enjoyable and comprehensive collection of letters written by Truffaut, covering a wide array of areas, including small mention of the two films of this unit. In particular p. 125 has a paragraph about
Les 400 Coups
that would be good to share with students, as it depicts the relationship between home and school; and pp. 177-179, which is a letter to Alfred Hitchcock pitching a project to him. It is a great example of going after what you want, and how writing can help you get it.
Pascal, Michel and Serge Toubiana.
François Truffaut: Portraits volés
, (88 minutes) 1993. Documentary film on Truffaut; it should be used to show clips of Truffaut, to show what he looked like "in person," and how he felt about filmmaking.
Philibert, Nicholas.
Être et avoir
, (104 minutes) 2002. This film is a modern-day documentary filmed in the same area as
L'Argent de poche
. It follows a teacher and his different-aged students in a one-room elementary schoolhouse. It would be a nice way to show an update of the Truffaut film while looking at an actual documentary. It does move slowly, so teachers may want to show clips only. The language is not very crisp here, so it is not a great way to showcase language.
Shattuck, Roger.
The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron.
New York: Kodansha America, Inc., 1994. A cultural and historical exploration of the story behind
L'Enfant Sauvage
, an excellent source for socio-historical context as well as information from Itard's papers, and the entirety of Victor's story.
Truffaut, François.
L'Argent de poche,
(105 minutes) 1976.
Truffaut, François.
L'Enfant sauvage,
(83 minutes) 1970.