Mar
5
2023
Nov
11
2022
MUD
Fiches de travail ICI.
BEFORE THE FILM
- First, let’s have a look at the movie posters.
- What kind of film is it ? What can you imagine about the film, the plot ? What do you think about the title ? What does the word ‘mud’ refer to ?
- Check the differences between the different versions and say everything you can.
2. Now watch the trailer HERE.
3. Who is Jeff Nichols, the director ?
Jeff Nichols was born on December 7, 1978 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Take Shelter (2011), Midnight Special (2016) and Mud (2012).
4. The plot
AFTER THE FILM
Nature. It is a space for adventure and dream. In this tale of initiation, what role does it play ?
Nichols invites us to a tale of initiation in a natural setting.
The journeys back and forth between the island and the town of De Witt (to and from the island) form the main plot around which several stories are told, like so many tests for young Ellis who discovers reality.
His passage to adulthood is symbolically shown during the fall into the snake pit.
The sequence, which is highly suspenseful, also allows Mud to leave behind his eternal adolescence.
The direction of Mud borrows from several cinematographic genres.
Filmed in the tradition of American adventure cinema, space is a territory to be conquered, an imagination to be discovered. Nature is both a vivid, radiant force
and a space of dreams (island, forest).
The first images of the boat, borrowed by Ellis and Neck, rocketing on the water express the call of adventure that attracts them.
As in a fairy tale, the two boys’ desire for wonder takes shape:
at the beginning of the film by the vision of a boat perched in a tree, then by footprints that suddenly stop in the sand, and finally by the fantastic appearance of Mud. Very simply, the director brings to life the reality and the imaginary.
Then, the mystery or the threat of a supernatural force seem to be everywhere, and are carried, in part by Mud, whose double personality, half hero-adventurer, half evil spirit from the waters of the Mississippi, fascinates the two protagonists.
Finally, the film also borrows from the rules of the thriller: tracking, shooting and suspense.
