This film screened on Saturday 25th May 2019.

Screening in 35mm

Dennis ‘Spider’ Clegg (Ralph Fiennes) has just been released from a mental institution and is staying at a desolate halfway house as he prepares to reintegrate with society. Paranoid and fearful, he dwells obsessively on distressing childhood memories involving his parents (Miranda Richardson and Gabriel Byrne) and the woman he believes came between them. Cronenberg’s perspective completely inhabits the fractured interior life of Spider, where past and present are hopelessly conflated; the character’s tortured psyche is reflected in the dank, crumbling production design and dour colour palette that heightens the oppressive atmosphere of anxious dread.

Screening as part of our Memory on Film season, May 11th to 29th 2019.