US writer-director Sean Baker has one of the films of the year on his hands with comedy-drama Anora, in which the titular character, a stripper played by Mikey Madison in a sensational performance, commences a romance with Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn), the spoiled son of a Russian oligarch.

Unfortunately for Anora, the relationship eventually curdles with the arrival of Ivan’s disapproving parents, as the movie deftly mixes wild humour with moments of affecting emotional complexity. Anora was a richly deserving winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes back in May, which for 53-year-old Baker was the realisation of a lifetime ambition.

“It was incredible, I’m still processing it almost five months later,” he says. “It feels like yesterday. It’s been a whirlwind and now that general audiences are starting to see it, it seems like it’s the same sentiment in terms of the love that’s coming for it. I couldn’t be happier. At first, it was overwhelming and I needed the summer to get to grips with it, ‘cos there’s a lot of pressure. Also, as I said onstage it was my dream come true. My only dream – that was it!

“It is almost this existential crisis of, like, ‘What’s my new dream? Where do I go from here?’ But in the last couple of months, I came to the realisation that what the Palme D’Or has allowed me to do is continue making these kinds of movies and not hear the noise. Many a time, I’ve been almost seduced by the studios and now I don’t have to be at all.”

Madison undoubtedly delivers a star-making turn, with Baker noting the actress first caught his eye with cameo in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 hit, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

“I actually knew while watching that movie,” Baker reflects. “I was really blown away by her performance and thought, ‘Oh wow, she’s special.’ But I hadn’t even started thinking of Anora at that point – I’m not even sure if I’d made my previous movie, Red Rocket. But I filed her away as someone I might work with some day. Then Anora was starting to move forward, and I went to see Scream on the opening weekend. It was really a combination.

“I wanted somebody fresh and Mikey hadn’t had a big lead role yet. So something told me right there – it was a combination of those two performances. She showed intensity in both and she could obviously scream! But until she’s revealed as the killer in Scream, she was also playing a normal everyday young adult, who had a lot of attitude and a sense of humour. Also, the way she held herself and her physicality was very unique. I just knew it

“So I turned to my wife and producer, Samantha Quan, in the theatre and said, ‘We’re calling her reps the minute we leave.’ We had a meeting with her and it all went great. She told me her favourite film was Possession, and how can I not cast someone whose favourite film is Possession? She far exceeded all expectations, so thank god.”

BETWEEN PATHOS AND HUMOUR

Anora contains numerous sex scenes between Anora and Ivan, for which Madison decided to forego an intimacy coordinator. Although the actress is herself Gen Z, a Guardian report a while back suggests audiences of that generation want to see less sex on screen. How did Baker find making Anora in such a cultural landscape?

“I read that poll I think early on in production,” he recalls. “I was just like, ‘I don’t know if this poll is even accurate!’ And if it is, it’s sad. But I did kind of analyse it, because I was going into production on a film that I knew had lots of sex scenes. This is the way I see it: I think if that’s true, it’s because of the prevalence of pornography online. That generation has been exposed to that kind of thing from a very early age. Maybe they separate it like, ‘Okay, we can get that here, we don’t need it as part of our storytelling.’

“Whereas, when we grew up, it was intentionally a part of the storytelling, to sometimes make it more marketable or attractive to audiences. I just find it sad, because I tell stories about real life and human experiences, and sex is a major part of that. For me, not to include it would seem untruthful. Anyway, the Gen Zers I speak to love the movie and don’t have any issue with it!”

It’s certainly a turnaround from the era when Gen Xers like Baker grew up, when sex was simply seen as part of art and culture.

“I just want to add one thing,” he continues. “It’s also bizarre that violence has become more and more graphic every single year – it’s okay for anybody to see violence. Now there’s violence in superhero movies that I can’t believe kids are seeing. Like, literally PG superhero movies are more violent than the R-rated stuff we were watching growing up. So, it’s alarming that we’re much more okay with the violence, but it’s no to sex. It’s very strange.”

In terms of the way Anora so skilfully weaves humour, pathos and poetic flourishes, it reminded me of cult New Hollywood director Hal Ashby, celebrated for ’70s classics like The Last Detail, Harold And Maude, Shampoo and Being There.

“Of course, 100%,” nods Sean. “I think you can really see it in one of my films called Starlet, which is about an intergenerational relationship. But yeah, he had an approach to human stories that never shied away from the balance between pathos and humour. He was doing it back then and I think he probably had a big influence on Jonathan Demme. So yeah, you got it! Although I don’t know if there’s direct reference.”

There are also some wonderful visual moments in Baker’s movie, none more so than when Anora and a group of Russian henchmen – all of them searching for the disappeared Ivan – wander down a Coney Island boardwalk at dusk.

“We were on that boardwalk intentionally waiting for that gradation in the sky,” notes Sean. “Because being on that boardwalk between Brighton and Coney, you have that beautiful landscape. So yeah, that was calculated.”

CHAMPION OF CINEMA

Coney Island has certainly had an eclectic cinematic representation, appearing in movies as varied as Anora and Darren Aronofsky’s harrowing 2001 drama, Requeim For A Dream.

“I also spoke to Walter Hill just before making the film, and he shot The Warriors there,” says Baker. “The Warriors is like the classic Coney Island movie. I remember him saying, ‘Well, it’s not hallowed ground!’ There have been a lot of films that have taken place there, a lot of filmmakers who’ve attempted it.

“We just thought we could bring something new to it, show it through a different lens – different from Aronofsky, James Gray and Walter. But to tell you the truth, not much has changed there, that’s the incredible part about it. Those rides are still there, and so is the Cyclone, which is over 100 years old. It’s almost like it’s stuck in time.”

In my living room at home, I actually have a poster from Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly cinema in Los Angeles, secured during a 2021 visit when Baker’s Red Rocket was playing. It seems Tarantino has been quite supportive of the director.

“We’ve met a couple of times and he’s been very supportive,” he acknowledges. “Now, he’s going to showing Anora at his other theatre in Los Angeles, the Vista. We traded emails – I wrote to him right after we wrapped saying, ‘Thank you for putting Mikey in Once Upon A Time, because I wouldn’t have known about him without you.’ He said, ‘Yeah man, cool!’”

In a nice piece of symmetry, Anora received the Palme d’Or exactly 30 years after Tarantino’s landmark crime drama Pulp Fiction. Was that movie a big influence on Baker?

“I actually think Reservoir Dogs had more of an impact,” he replies. “Because I was in film school when that came out, and that was like, ‘Oh my god.’ It felt fresh and new. And then a couple of years later when Pulp came out, we had to play the card of, ‘Oh well, I knew about him from back then – I was onboard since the first one!’

“And then over years, I’ve loved a lot of his films, and also just his fight to keep cinema alive. Shooting on film, owning two theatres, supporting the movie going experience – he’s a true champion of cinema.”

• Anora is out now. Watch the trailer below: