WARNING: CONTAINS REFERENCES TO MISCARRIAGE THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND DISTRESSING
Netflix viewers have been left in tears after watching what they reckon might just be the ‘saddest movie ever’.
Originally released back in 2020, Pieces of Woman is a gripping and realistic drama starring Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf as a married couple who are set to become parents.
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When the home birth ends in an unfathomable tragedy, Martha (Kirby) begins a year-long odyssey of mourning the death of the couple's baby that fractures relationships with their loved ones.
The film is still available to watch on Netflix - and is still seeing viewers bawling at the heartbreaking story.
One recently tweeted: “Pieces of a Woman is literally breaking my heart, this movie is so sad.”
Another wrote: “Pieces of a Woman on Netflix has me crying but it’s so good.”
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And when asked what the saddest movie they’d ever seen was earlier this month, someone else quote-tweeted: “Pieces of a Woman.”
After the film’s initial release, Kirby said filming one particularly devastating scene left her ‘sobbing for 10 minutes’ afterwards.
The sequence in question sees Kirby’s Martha as she gives birth to a baby daughter, who tragically dies shortly afterwards.
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We watch as Martha gives birth in a harrowing one-take, 24-minute scene, showing the birth and the traumatic death that followed.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, Kirby recalled: "The first time we shot it, I was literally sobbing for 10 minutes afterwards. I couldn't get out of it.
“My brain was telling me it wasn't real, but my unconscious didn't know the difference, especially with having a real baby in my arms.”
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To prepare for the scene, Kirby watched a woman give birth for seven hours.
"I remember every single second of it. I was there, glued to my seat, for seven hours, not even a loo break!" she continued.
"I was just amazed, in awe. I saw a woman completely surrender and go on this spiritual journey, which involved indescribable pain, clearly, but also ecstasy.
"It gave me a whole new respect for women and how powerful they are, and a new empathy for men, because they feel so helpless.
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"And obviously, seeing the baby come out was the most incredible thing in the world I've ever seen, by far.
"After he was born, all of the mother's colour returned, she looked like an angel, she had a kind of holy glow."
Benjamin Loeb, who was the film’s cinematographer, said the opening scene drew on ‘personal experiences’ of those involved in making the movie.
In an interview with Movie Maker, he explained: "Through numerous conversations, touching on our own personal experiences at the births of our own children, we decided that the right approach was to aim for a single take that compressed and expanded time without cuts."
Topics: TV And Film, Netflix
Jess Hardiman