CINEMA – Fundamentally funny, touching, sometimes provocative but never raunchy, Anora is in the image of its heroine. Sean Baker’s film, crowned Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival 2024in cinemas since Wednesday October 30. Actress Mikey Madison plays a stripper whose life takes on a modern-day Cinderella twist when she meets the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch.
Neither one nor two, Prince Charming in rebellion against his parents and the dancer from Brooklyn say yes to Las Vegas. Anora, known as Annie, moves into Ivan’s sumptuous New York villa. But this whirlwind of love, glitter and drugs suddenly takes a completely different turn. Ivan’s parents want to have the marriage annulled and send their henchmen to ensure that the two lovebirds put an end to this union which tarnishes their reputation.
But Ivan flees and young Annie finds herself, despite herself, embarked on a dangerous journey in search of her husband. The film opens with an authentic dive into the world of sex workersfavorite subject of the American director since Starlet And Tangerine.
A stripper Cinderella
The scenes behind the scenes strip club show both solidarity and rivalry between the dancers. Sean Baker’s film reminds us that the world of sex work is not very different from that of open space: quarrels between colleagues, abusive managers, battles to enforce one’s lunch break… “People don’t realize it’s as hard as any other job. The sex workers I met have a strong sense of professional ethics”explains the director to HuffPost, in our video interview at the top of the article.
Sean Baker hopes that by telling stories with “complete and humanized characters”his films could help combat the stigma around “oldest profession in the world”. Anora does not claim to be representative of all sex work, but it offers a sincere dive into the world of striptease and highlights a heroine in control of her destiny. Annie is presented as a fighter and not as a victim. The main character, who lives with his sister, is the breadwinner of the family, resourceful and down to earth.
To prepare for this physically and emotionally demanding role, Mikey Madison worked with stripper consultants on the film to learn how to dance and “add as many realistic details as possible”. The 25-year-old American actress also learned to speak Russian, a language very present in the film. Annie knows how to be charming and please men, but she also knows how to fight and swear.
“I wanted her to be strong but also nuanced when it comes to emotions”develops Mikey Madison on this “multi-level character”. Behind his image of “bad-ass”the heroine is above all a young woman who wants to believe in Prince Charming and will find herself coming up against the stigma surrounding her choice of profession.
Sean Baker breaks all the clichés
If Anora takes on the air of a fairy tale at times, all the better to play on clichés. “We present viewers with a romantic comedy, we sell the film as such”notes Sean Baker, showing the poster, “and it is, for the first 45 minutes. And then the film shifts into something completely different.”. From a punch scene (and even feet), Anora turns into an absurd road trip. The escalation in the seriousness of each scene is matched by the laughter in the theater. As crude as it is funny, the verbal violence of the characters punctuates the dialogues.
And the clichés at first glance turn out to be intentional. “With each character in the film, we establish stereotypes and then break them”laughs Sean Baker. Ivan is therefore not exactly what the viewer, or Annie, would expect of a young billionaire. The big bad guys sent by her father take a beating from the young girl and suffer Ivan’s childish whims just as much as she does.
It is with this improbable trio that Sean Baker gradually reveals the vulnerability of each character. Actor Yuri Borissov is terrific in the role of Igor, a tall, seemingly imperturbable guy, hired to physically control the situation. Toros, Ivan’s father’s right-hand man and the young man’s godfather, is an Orthodox priest, overwhelmed by the situation. The actor Karren Karagulian, present in all of Sean Baker’s films, plays him. He is accompanied by another character from the Armenian diaspora, Garnyck (Vache Tovmasyan), who also provides his share of humorous moments.
After the romance then the violence and the comedy, the last scene of the film changes register again. For 2 hours and 20 minutes, Sean Baker showed us all the colors. “I would describe it as a very unpredictable film. It’s funny, sad, an interesting mix of genres”estimates Mikey Madison, before summarizing Anora in the best way: “It’s a Sean Baker film, in short! “. And surely his best, with the Palme d’Or to back it up.
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