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Spider (film)
Encyclopedia
Spider is a 2002 Canadian/British drama film
produced and directed by David Cronenberg
and based on the novel of the same name
by Patrick McGrath, who also wrote the screenplay.
The film premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival
and enjoyed some media buzz; however, it was released in only a few theaters at the year's end by distributor Sony Pictures Classics
. Nonetheless, the film enjoyed much acclaim by critics and especially by Cronenberg enthusiasts. The film garnered a Best Director award at the Canadian Genie Awards. The stars of the film, Ralph Fiennes
and particularly Miranda Richardson
, received several awards for their work in the film.
During a Q&A session at the Kodak Lecture Series in May 2005, Cronenberg revealed that neither he, nor Fiennes, nor Richardson, nor the producers received any sort of salary during the shooting of the film. All chose to waive their salaries, so the money could be used to fund the under-funded production.
in Walworth made the exterior for 'Pegge Street'. In this visualization, a shift takes place in the child's psyche when he witnesses his mother groping with his father in the garden and, subsequently, when he sees his mother in a silky night gown she wore for his father. The son, as a grown man seems to recreate in his memory the build up to his father's murder of his mother with the passive support of his mistress who then moves into the house and is presented as his mother. The young son then kills the mistress by gassing her in the kitchen.
After that memory he attempts to kill the landlady who, by then, he sees alternatively as the mistress and his mother. He is taken back to the asylum. By the end of the film it seems that his father did not kill his mother, but that the murder happened in the child's mind who had already started losing his sense of reality and imagined it. There is no clear indication whether his killing of his mother whom he imagined as the mistress, actually happened. Central themes of the film include memory
, the unreliability thereof, and the blur between reality and hallucination
. The main character often places himself within his memories.
gives the film a score of 85% based on reviews from 126 critics.
On Metacritic
, the film had an average score of 83 out of 100, based on 35 reviews.
It was mentioned in the 2002 Sight & Sound
Poll by Amy Taubin
, who ranked it at 10th.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
produced and directed by David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
and based on the novel of the same name
Spider (novel)
Spider is a novel by the British novelist Patrick McGrath, originally published in the United States in 1990. Its eponymous character, birth name Dennis Cleg, is a recent arrival from a lunatic asylum to a halfway house in the East End of London-- just a few streets away, by strange coincidence,...
by Patrick McGrath, who also wrote the screenplay.
The film premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival
2002 Cannes Film Festival
The 2002 Cannes Film Festival started on 15 May and ran until 26 May. The Palme d'Or went to the Polish-French-German-British co-produced film The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski.-Jury:* David Lynch * Sharon Stone* Michelle Yeoh...
and enjoyed some media buzz; however, it was released in only a few theaters at the year's end by distributor Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...
. Nonetheless, the film enjoyed much acclaim by critics and especially by Cronenberg enthusiasts. The film garnered a Best Director award at the Canadian Genie Awards. The stars of the film, Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
and particularly Miranda Richardson
Miranda Richardson
Miranda Jane Richardson is an English stage, film and television actor. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and has won two Golden Globes and a BAFTA during her career....
, received several awards for their work in the film.
During a Q&A session at the Kodak Lecture Series in May 2005, Cronenberg revealed that neither he, nor Fiennes, nor Richardson, nor the producers received any sort of salary during the shooting of the film. All chose to waive their salaries, so the money could be used to fund the under-funded production.
Plot
Spider is an exploration of a schizophrenic mind told through the eyes of a grown man who is given a room in a house catering for mentally disturbed persons. The man has just been released from a mental institution and in his new abode starts piecing together or recreating in his memory an apparently fateful childhood event. He roams the nearby derelict urban area and the local canal and starts to relive or visualize a period of his childhood with his mother and his father. Set in 1950s London, exterior shots were made at Kennington for the gas towers and Pullens buildingsPullens buildings
The Pullens buildings, also known as the Pullens Estate, are some of the last Victorian tenement buildings surviving in London, England. In the Walworth, Newington area, they are near Elephant and Castle and Kennington Underground stations....
in Walworth made the exterior for 'Pegge Street'. In this visualization, a shift takes place in the child's psyche when he witnesses his mother groping with his father in the garden and, subsequently, when he sees his mother in a silky night gown she wore for his father. The son, as a grown man seems to recreate in his memory the build up to his father's murder of his mother with the passive support of his mistress who then moves into the house and is presented as his mother. The young son then kills the mistress by gassing her in the kitchen.
After that memory he attempts to kill the landlady who, by then, he sees alternatively as the mistress and his mother. He is taken back to the asylum. By the end of the film it seems that his father did not kill his mother, but that the murder happened in the child's mind who had already started losing his sense of reality and imagined it. There is no clear indication whether his killing of his mother whom he imagined as the mistress, actually happened. Central themes of the film include memory
Memory
In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
, the unreliability thereof, and the blur between reality and hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
. The main character often places himself within his memories.
Cast
- Ralph FiennesRalph FiennesRalph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
(Bradley Hall, young) as Dennis "Spider" Cleg - Miranda RichardsonMiranda RichardsonMiranda Jane Richardson is an English stage, film and television actor. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and has won two Golden Globes and a BAFTA during her career....
as Yvonne / Mrs. Cleg - Gabriel ByrneGabriel ByrneGabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined Londo's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the...
as Bill Cleg - John Neville as Terrence
- Lynn RedgraveLynn RedgraveLynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE was an English actress.A member of the well-known British family of actors, Redgrave trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962...
as Mrs. Wilkinson
Reception
Review aggregation website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gives the film a score of 85% based on reviews from 126 critics.
On Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the film had an average score of 83 out of 100, based on 35 reviews.
It was mentioned in the 2002 Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute .Sight & Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent BFI, which still publishes the magazine today...
Poll by Amy Taubin
Amy Taubin
Amy Taubin is an American film critic. She is a contributing editor for two prominent film magazines, the British Sight & Sound and the American Film Comment...
, who ranked it at 10th.