Sean Baker didn’t notice the similarities between Anora and Pretty Woman

“I’ll wait for the effect of Anora to wear off, and then I’ll rent Pretty Woman…”, adds the winner of the last Palme d’Or.

Since its presentation at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Palme d’Or, Anora is constantly being compared to Pretty WomanGarry Marshall’s 1990 rom-com – whether at The Hollywood Reporteror right here, in the editorial office of First : “a crazy rereading of Pretty Womanwith cocaine instead of pastries”, we wrote when we discovered it in Cannes last May.

Julia Roberts becomes Mikey Madison, and just like her elder sister, this sex worker falls in love with a rich man – from Richard Gere to Mark Eydelshteyn, the son of a Russian oligarch. A very close story, a rewriting seen through the camera of Sean Baker who himself has long ignored the similarities between the two films.

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While his latest feature film has just been presented at the Toronto Festival, the director made this confession toIndieWire :

“Quite honestly, I didn’t make the connection until we were in the middle of production and someone pointed it out, and then I thought, ‘Oh ok, yeah, that’s right, I see.’ But I didn’t want it to influence me. (…) So I decided not to see him again, and to tell you the truth, I haven’t seen him since the 90s. I’m going to wait until the effect from Anora fall back, and afterward I will praise him at all times.”

Beyond its similarities to the cult romantic comedy, Sean Baker is not new to the world of sex workers. In Tangerinereleased in 2015, it highlights transgender African-American prostitutes, then in Red Rocket (2021), its main character is an X-rated film actor.

For Anorahe goes further. He called on a sex worker, Andrea Werhun, as a consultant in order to give his film a realistic and respectful vision of this environment. As for the actors, Mikey Madison also trained for months for her erotic dance numbers and learned Russian. According to her, it was vital to give the spectators the impression that Anora had been practicing this profession for years. The actress will soon be rewarded for her performance and her entire young career with the New Hollywood prize at the Deauville Festival.

Sometimes described as “a fake Pretty Woman“a twisted and more realistic version of the romantic comedy, or even “a kind of rude and crazy variation on Pretty Woman”, as it is written in our review, Anora will be released in theaters on October 30.

Cannes 2024: Meeting with Sean Baker, Palme d’Or for Anora