Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Spider

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Posted by Brad Haven (Member # 954) on 02-28-2003, 11:34 AM:

I saw SPIDER late last year, so my memory is a little hazy!
I went into this film only knowing that it was a cronenberg film with ralph fiennes starring.

Spider moves out of the mental institution, moves into a hostel (ex patients) and is haunted by memories of his past!

I liked this film, it was very bleak, but well crafted and very well performed. I wouldn't call it a riveting film, more a slow boiling character study.
I loved the cafe scene, it reminded me of a cafe i went to in blackpool in 99 [Eek!]

I would only recommend this film for people who are really interested!

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 03-23-2003, 05:39 PM:

Princeton Garden Theatre, Princeton NJ, 3/22/2003, 5 PM show. Hall #2, attendance ~50 -- half older people and half Cronenberg fans.

Unless you've lived/worked with mental patients or are a Cronenberg fan you might not get what Spider is about. Keeping a notebook in what looks like some Asian language? Being infatuated with the gas tanks across the street? Creepy yet compelling -- not unlike eXistenZ, the last Cronenberg movie.

Spider is worthy also for having a gentle mother-son pairing and for the pub gals who love cats. You even hear the cat purr as he's cuddled. [Smile]

Who wouldn't want to see a mother and son who love each other? And why are people so afraid of cats?

Presentation: Image was dark -- does Cronenberg have all his films shot this way? There was a recurring green scratch bottom center in the first 20 seconds of R6. Sound was good (Dolby Digital) though I heard a pop in a negative splice within R6. To top it all, the projector shut down halfway through the end credits (must have been a brainwrap).

Posted by Gunnar Johansson (Member # 1661) on 03-26-2003, 04:21 PM:

Just got out from seeing it. Screening with me and two guys from the crew who books the films. They are going away tomorrow when we show it.
I liked it. Not a lot of action, or pace, but very nice. The whole film had a green feel and look to it, and some very nice twists towards the end. Maybe I´ll see some more of Cronenburgs work now, I liked the moving around with the charactersm and hardly even noticed it at first...
I had a similar crack in R6, weird, pretty dark picture, but no green scratch that I can remember seeing.
Thouroghly enjoyable if you don´t have anything else to do, or at least nothing important