L'Enfant sauvage
After filming was completed, Truffaut realized that "The Wild Child" had a strong connection to his first film "The 400 Blows", not just for its depicting of frustrated children but because it mirrored his experience working with then first time actor Jean-Pierre Léaud. Truffaut said that "I was reliving somewhat the shooting of "The 400 Blows", during which I initiated Jean-Pierre Léaud into cinema. I basically taught him what cinema was." Truffaut then decided to dedicate the film to Léaud. He later added that he "realized that "L"Enfant sauvage" is bound up with both "Les Quatre Cent Coups" and "Fahrenheit 451". In "Les Quatre Cents Coups" I showed a child who missed being loved, who grows up without tenderness; in "Fahrenheit 451" it was a man who longed for books, that is, culture. With Victor of Aveyron, what is missing is something more essential – language." Truffaut also considered the making of the film to be a growing experience for him as a person and as a filmmaker, stating that "until "The Wild Child", when I had children in my films, I identified with them, but here, for the first time, I identified with the adult, the father." After the film was released, Truffaut told a reporter "I did not want to spell out my message. It is simply this: man is nothing without other men."