Based on the novel of the same name by Patrick McGrath, Spider tells the story of Dennis Cleg, aka Spider (played by Ralph Fiennes), a schizophrenic man recently released from an institution now living in a halfway house in East London. Spider spends his days walking along the Thames, remembering events from his childhood. McGrath’s novel is narrated by Spider , and the memories are relayed from his very unreliable perspective. In adapting this story for the screen, David Cronenberg had to employ cinematic techniques to communicate both the subjectivity and unreliability of the events, as witnessed from the perspective of a man who is simultaneously remembering, observing, and manipulating his past.
View a transcript of this video
Images provided courtesy of Prospero Pictures, Entertainment One and Sony Pictures Classics Inc.
