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).
Sean “Diddy” Combs seeks bail, citing changed circumstances and new evidence
Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a new request for bail on Friday, saying changed circumstances, along with new evidence, mean the hip-hop mogul should be allowed to prepare for a May trial from outside jail.
Lawyers for Combs filed the request in Manhattan federal court, where his previous requests for bail have been rejected by two judges since his September arrest on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
He has been awaiting a May 5 trial at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.
In their new court filing, lawyers for Combs say they are proposing a "far more robust" bail package that would subject the entertainer to strict around-the-clock security monitoring and near-total restrictions on his ability to contact anyone but his lawyers. But the amount of money they attach to the package remains $50 million, as they proposed before.
They also cite new evidence that they say "makes clear that the government's case is thin." That evidence, the lawyers said, refutes the government's claim that a March 2016 video showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend occurred during a coerced "freak off," a sexually driven event described in the indictment against Combs.
They wrote that the encounter was instead "a minutes-long glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship" between Combs and his then-girlfriend.
The lawyers argued that the jail conditions Combs is experiencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn violate his constitutional... Read More