In the first frame, we meet Ani. One to two weeks later, we meet Anora. In the last moment. The climax, anti-climax, that crowns this film and this performance, with all the wins (Palme d'Or 2024, five Oscars, BAFTA, SAG awards). In the first frame, Ani is is masterful, skilled and in control in her professional exctasy, as an exotic strip-dancer in the club "HQ". At the end, Ani is also with her body on another body. Here, she is fully Anora. Surrendered, bruised and with an unbearable feeling for one body to carry. Her body and guts carries the entire film. As the scientists say, "the body keeps the score". All that we see happening, goes through her, in her. She is the one that fires up the erotic energy, she is the one that kicks and screams to defend her newfound life and fever-love, she is the one left with bruises, scratches, scarves and rings. While in all that time, Vanya, the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch, who transforms his American trip into an impulsive elopement with his dreamgirl, he, he takes, comes, and escapes. Was it ever a fairy tale? And if so, for Ani or for Vanya? Was it an escape? For both, surely. The two of them, only 2-years apart in age, Ani/Anora is 23-year old and Vanya/Ivan is 21-year-old, both of Russian origins, yet in such different life battles and life cards delt. "Vanya, talk to me!", how she keeps demanding, asking, fighting to change the reality that is incoming. I can still hear the color of her gutsy voice, days after watching the film.
With the snowfall, the staircase of her Brighton beach home awaiting her, her suitcases carried by Igor, can she bear to go back inside?
The discovery of this poem brings Anora's pep to mind, again and again:
TOOLS
A woman's body has everything in it
to save her life
if you must
use your legs as raft
heel as hammer
teeth as machete
monthly blood as healing salve
milk for building
breasts as shelter
learn to breathe
use your locks to suture every wound
learn to scream
learn to scream
learn to speak
learn to live
within the smallest muscle of your heart
- Baker cast Mikey Madison after seeing her in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and Scream (2022). He hired Madison without an audition. When you know, you know! Madison learned Russian, visited strip clubs, and studied the Brooklyn accent to prepare.
- Anora was filmed over 37 days, with the 25-minute home invasion scene taking 10 days.
- Anora grossed $43 million worldwide against a $6 million budget, making it Baker's highest-grossing film.
- The name Igor has its origins in the Russian language and is derived from the Old Norse name Ingvarr, meaning Ing's Warrior. Igor connotes: bravery, courage, warrior.
- The name Anora comes from Latin origins and typically means "honor." He also states the English and Hebrew meanings, which include "light" and "grace." In Uzbek, it means pomegranate.
- The search for Vanya scene in "Tatiana Grill" was filmed in real life - by an impromptu film crew entrance into that nights' happenings at the Russian restaurant in Brighton Beach.
- The word fuck is used 479x in the 2h 19mins film.
- "Anora" is not rated NC-17, it is rated R. For example, "Showgirls", "Dreamers", "The Last Tango in Paris" are rated NC-17.
