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The Girl and the Spider

Play trailer Poster for The Girl and the Spider Released Apr 8, 2022 1h 39m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
93% Tomatometer 30 Reviews 44% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
As her roommate Lisa prepares to move out of their apartment, Mara contemplates the end of an era. Furniture is moved, walls painted, cupboards built. Amid all the hustle and bustle, secret longings and desires come to the surface and coalesce around the roommates as well as around Lisa's mother Astrid, the movers, the girls' old neighbors, the neighbors' cat, Lisa's new neighbor and an ever-expanding cast of characters. Day turns into night and one final party in the apartment. When the last box is moved, the fragments of their lives remain.
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The Girl and the Spider

The Girl and the Spider

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Critics Consensus

Beneath its deceptively placid surface, The Girl and the Spider grapples with deeply meaningful questions of personal identity in the face of fundamental change.

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Critics Reviews

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A.A. Dowd Digital Trends The Girl and the Spider is a brilliantly maddening thing, a drama that plays by its own perplexing rules. Apr 28, 2022 Full Review Sheri Linden The Hollywood Reporter As in their first film, the Zürchers bring a fresh perspective to the connection between humans and the wild world, specifically within the story’s domestic trappings. Apr 15, 2022 Full Review Carlos Aguilar Los Angeles Times Narratively cagey as it may seem, “The Girl and the Spider” clearly, and affectingly, muses on farewells, change and our enduring or fleeting bonds to people and the places where we loved them. Apr 15, 2022 Full Review Steve Morrissey Radio Times Confurius and Amuat play their characters as enigmas - one downcast, the other upbeat - in an oblique drama full of unrequited emotion, where proximity and intimacy are constantly confused. Rated: 3/5 May 9, 2024 Full Review Elsa Fernández-Santos El Pais (Spain) The ensemble keeps the audience intrigued and guessing... [Full review in Spanish] Sep 16, 2022 Full Review Prahlad Srihari News9 Live (India) The film spins a web of unexpressed emotions in conflict, weaving its magic through a waltz of loneliness and longing, attraction and rejection, in confined places where bodies sometimes move to the same rhythms, sometimes in opposition. Aug 29, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (4) audience reviews
isla s This is quite a laidback and somehow/somewhat subtle film. It has a nice feel to it - its got a dreamy sense to it too I thought. I liked hearing the stories about the characters past and seeing how they opened up to one another. This is an enjoyable and possibly somewhat poignant, if not overly memorable, film. I'd recommend it, yes. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member One is tempted to look at The Girl and the Spider and toss it into the bin of ‘art for art's sake.' I get that. It contains no moment of high drama, no conventuous leerings that paint the actor's performances with Oscar clips. It is a drama, but not a riveting drama in any conventional sense. Personally, I like that about it. The Girl and the Spider is a portrait of life as we know it – not in movie terms, but from human experience. We are invited to be a participant rather than spectator. The sibling directors Ramond and Silvan Zürcher want us to stand in the room with these people and hear their conversations, intrude on their lives and very often take a journey into their psyche. We first meet Mara (Henriette Confurious) standing in the middle of her apartment as people busy themselves around her, moving boxes and negotiating furniture. Her face is passive with a not-too-subtle stain of heartbreak – the cold sore on her lip seems to tell a story all it's own. Another woman, an older woman named Astrid (Ursina Lardi) is introduced and it takes us a moment to realize that she is the mother of Lisa (Lillian Amuat), Mara's soon-to-be former roommate. What occurs between these three women is really never nailed down. This is not a film of dialogue but of looks, of spaces, of things unsaid. Their expressions reveal dialogue that we are invited to interpret. There is a closeness in the shots – the actors are mostly seen in tight shots from the bust-line up and often the women stand close to each other and look into one another eyes as if inviting us to guess the secret union between them. What do they privately share? Do they know each other's secrets? Were they partners in crime? Did, at some point in the past, their friendly association turn sapphic? It is a fun guessing game. The narrative structure is fascinating. The entire film takes place over two days as the move continues, boxes and furniture disappear and the personal association with other friends who pass through are revealed. There is no single point of view. Sometimes we see the story from one point of view. Then later we see a fantasy sequence. Then a minor character is introduced but never explained. All are part of the tapestry of life and, as in our own lives, we see major and minor characters moving in and out of the picture. Characters say things that mean nothing to us but, we sense, mean something to them. If I sound like I am being vague on the actual details, it's because that's how the film plays out. This is a Swiss production and if you are at all familiar with their cinematic history, then this film will come as no surprise to you. There is a fragmented structure and the film offers us the opportunity to be an active participant and paint the details that the film leaves blank. It is an approach that will probably put some people off. If you're a casual admirer of film, then this is probably not for you. It's a film geared more for the connoisseur. I am, and I liked the challenged that it presented. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Ta inność nie przypadła mi do gustu. O irracjonalnych, niewypowiadanych słowach i nierobionych czynach, pojawiających się w myślach, by wyparować z nich od razu Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review R Victor B It was boring and impossible to make out even the relationships, no less a point of view or a theme. Actually it was pretentious beyond imagination. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 04/10/22 Full Review Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis As her roommate Lisa prepares to move out of their apartment, Mara contemplates the end of an era. Furniture is moved, walls painted, cupboards built. Amid all the hustle and bustle, secret longings and desires come to the surface and coalesce around the roommates as well as around Lisa's mother Astrid, the movers, the girls' old neighbors, the neighbors' cat, Lisa's new neighbor and an ever-expanding cast of characters. Day turns into night and one final party in the apartment. When the last box is moved, the fragments of their lives remain.
Director
Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher
Producer
Aline Schmid, Adrian Blaser
Screenwriter
Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher
Distributor
The Cinema Guild
Production Co
Beauvoir Films, In The Air
Genre
Drama
Original Language
German
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 8, 2022, Limited
Runtime
1h 39m
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