Academy Award ® winning director Martin Scorsese has joined the film team of Pieces of a Woman as an executive producer. It is the first English language film directed by Kornél Mundruczó who has been a Cannes regular with films that include the Cannes Un Certain Regard Prix winner White God. The deeply personal Pieces of a Woman is written by Kata Wéber based on a shared personal experience with Mundruczó. It stars Vanessa Kirby in the lead role along with Shia LaBeouf, Molly Parker, Sarah Snook, Iliza Schlesinger, Benny Safdie, Jimmy Fails and Ellen Burstyn. It will have its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival in September followed by a Gala Screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Scorsese commented, “It’s lucky to see a movie that takes you by surprise. It’s a privilege to help it find the wide audience it deserves. Pieces of a Woman for me was a deep and uniquely moving experience. I was emotionally invested in it from the first scene, and the experience only intensified as I watched, spellbound by the filmmaking and the work of a splendid cast that includes my old colleague Ellen Burstyn. You feel as if you’ve been dropped into the vortex of a family crisis and moral conflict with all its nuances, drawn out with care and compassion but without judgement. Kornél Mundruczó has a fluid, immersive style with the camera that makes it hard to look away, and impossible not to care.”
Mundruczó said, “When I first was contacted by Martin Scorsese after he saw Pieces of a Woman, time stopped for a second. It is an utter privilege that someone, who has seen and experienced filmmaking inside and out appreciates what we’ve created. One always feels more vulnerable with intimate and ‘close to your heart’ materials, but Martin Scorsese joining Pieces of a Woman, on top of an already fantastic cast and crew, is a deeply appreciated validation of the risks one takes when going forward to make something truly personal.”
Pieces of a Woman is a BRON Studios presentation of A Little Lamb production in association with Creative Wealth Media and Proton Cinema. The film is produced by Kevin Turen, Ashley Levinson and Aaron Ryder. It is executive produced by Sam Levinson, Stuart Manashil, Viktória Petrányi, Jason Cloth, Richard McConnell, Suraj Maraboyina, Aaron L. Gilbert, and Steven Thibault. BRON Releasing is also handling world sales.
In Pieces of a Woman, Martha and Sean Carson (Kirby and LaBeouf) are a Boston couple on the verge of parenthood whose lives change irrevocably during a home birth at the hands of a flustered midwife (Parker), who faces charges of criminal negligence. Thus begins a year-long odyssey for Martha, who must navigate her grief while working through fractious relationships with her husband and her domineering mother (Burstyn), along with the publicly vilified midwife whom she must face in court. The film is a deeply personal, searing domestic aria in exquisite shades of grey and an ultimately transcendent story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.
Mundruczó is a critically acclaimed multi-award-winning Hungarian film director. Mundruczó studied film and television at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Hungary. He is the founder of Proton Cinema. His first film Pleasant Days (2002) was awarded the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival. His following projects all premiered at the Cannes Film Festival including: Johanna (2005 Un Certain Regard), Delta (2008 Official Competition, winner of the FIPRESCI prize), Tender Son (2010 Official Competition), White God (2014 Un Certain Regard, winning the Prize Un Certain Regard) and Jupiter’s Moon (2017 Official Competition).
