A young Brooklyn sex worker named Anora impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch after a whirlwind romance. Then the young man's parents send fixers to get the marriage annulled and take the fairy tale apart. Sean Baker's film jumps between genres. It is a portrait of a working-class woman who refuses to be simply erased.
Anora is a 2024 drama, romance and comedy film directed by Sean Baker. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 narrative, 2 cinematography and 1 editing), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Moonlight uses several of the same techniques.
Switching to a clearly different look and mood from one part to the next, either between chapters of 1 film or between a film and its sequel.
How this film uses it
Baker moves the film through 3 distinct moods: romantic comedy, screwball farce and devastating realism. The genre expectations he builds in the first act make the collapse in the second and third hit harder.
Where to see it
The arrival of the Russian fixers. Without warning, the romantic comedy tips into physical chaos and then into something sadder.
Shooting with a handheld camera so the frame shakes and moves with the action. This documentary-style look, called cinema vérité, puts you uncomfortably close to the character.
How this film uses it
Drew Daniels shoots the Brighton Beach and Coney Island sequences in a restless, naturalistic handheld style. It roots Anora in a specifically working-class part of the map before the oligarch world intrudes.
Where to see it
The strip club opening sequences. The camera moves across the floor with Anora at the distance of a patron, and it observes without judging.
Timing the cuts to the rhythm of the action or the music. The fast, precise editing gives a scene momentum you can almost feel physically.
How this film uses it
The long chase and struggle sequence after the Russian fixers arrive is cut very fast. The cutting matches both the physical comedy and the real distress of a scene that won't settle into one genre.
Where to see it
The living room struggle, as the fixers try to contain Anora after Ivan runs. The editing rhythm switches back and forth between slapstick and real fear.
Using specific working-class parts of a city, like its bars, docks and construction sites, to define the characters. The places show who they are expected to be and what leaving would cost.
How this film uses it
Baker shoots Brighton Beach, the strip club and Anora's apartment with the same visual care he gives Ivan's Brooklyn mansion. He doesn't make poverty look pretty, and the oligarch world never feels more real on screen than the world she comes from.
Where to see it
Anora's apartment in Brighton Beach. The production design shows you the economic gap between her world and Ivan's without comment or sentimentality.
Questions
Anora: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Anora use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Anora (2024): Tonal Succession, Handheld Cinema Vérité, Kinetic Editing and Working-Class Geography.
Who directed Anora?
Sean Baker directed Anora, released in 2024. CineCode also covers Tangerine (2015), The Florida Project (2017), Red Rocket (2021).
What films are similar to Anora?
Films that share techniques with Anora include Moonlight (2016), The French Connection (1971), The Florida Project (2017), Winter's Bone (2010).
