Rundown: How Pieces of a Woman Did It; Borat Pillow Talk; Saving Erotic Thrillers

In today’s Movie News Rundown: How Pieces of a Woman pulled off its astonishing, 24-minute continuous birth scene; pillow talk about the Borat ending; a couple try to revive sexy thrillers; what happens when a writer and director just aren’t seeing eye-to-eye.

Recommended Viewing: The excellent Pieces of a Woman is now on Netflix, from married director Kornél Mundruczó and writer Kata Wéber. Here’s a piece by the film’s cinematographer, Benajamin Loeb, on the techniques he used in the birth scene. My interview with Mundruczó will post later today.

Fatale: If you’re a fan of Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, and other sexy thrillers, you want want to miss the new Fatale, with Hilary Swank and Michael Ealy. Or this conversation with two other married filmmakers, Deon Taylor and Roxanne Avent, who enlisted Oscar winners to try to save a genre that deserves more love. Listen to Caleb Hammond’s interview on Apple or Spotify or here:

https://shows.acast.com/moviemaker-interviews/episodes/deon-taylor-and-roxanne-avent-fatale

Borat v. MyPillow Guy: The writers of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm considered targeting MyPillow founder Mike Lindell for an awkward encounter with Maria Bakalova, the actress who plays Borat’s daughter, Tutar. “We had this crazy idea to do a socially distanced interview with Mike Lindell and Borat’s daughter, and since we couldn’t do it indoors, we’d do it in the edge of the woods or some kind of wasteland,” co-writer Anthony Hines told Variety. “There would be a mattress there with a load of MyPillow products and Borat would find Mike Lindell at the edge of the woods in a bed with his daughter.” Instead, they snared Rudy Giuliani.

Today I Learned: The MyPillow guy overcame an addiction to crack. Wow!

Split: In the latest edition of Demystified, our hero producers realize that their writer and director just aren’t gelling — and make a bold decision. Here’s a lesson in how to resolve things amicably:

Have a Great Weekend, Everybody! See you Monday.

Main image: Vanessa Kirby in Pieces of a Woman.