Lhe New Yorker Sean Baker, 53, has been spotted for several years as a talent in American independent cinema, a filmmaker who takes an inventive, endearing, human look at the other side of the American dream, the “marginals” as they say. . He left his mark with “Tangerine” (2015) and “The Florida Project” (2017). But his notoriety did not really extend beyond a cinema-loving public, until the coronation of the month of May in Cannes: the director, both trendy and profound, received the Palme d’Or for his sixth film, “Anora”.
Sean Baker last May in Cannes, with his Palme d’Or
LOIC VENANCE / AFP
Anora is a prostitute in Brooklyn: you continue to be interested in minority characters, who are not very visible… Why this tropism?
No doubt a reaction to the way Hollywood traditionally represents them… Furthermore, it seems impossible to me to describe American society today without talking about the precarious, the social inequalities and the fractures, which are raw.
“Anora” begins as a “Pretty Woman”-style romance, the love story in New York between a stripper and the son of a Russian oligarch, then evolves into a crazy action comedy. Can we say that you have fun blasting romantic comedy?
Absolutely ! In “Anora”, you are given thirty minutes of romantic comedy, then eighty minutes of return to reality [rires].
How did you imagine this rather crazy story?
With the actor Karren Karagulian, a friend, who plays in the film, we wanted to imagine a story around the Russian oligarchs who live in Brighton Beach, south of New York. One day, there was this idea of a story between the son of one of these families and an American sex worker. I immediately felt that it was a good, romantic starting point. And I chose the actors very early on, from the first writing tasks. Mikey Madison, who plays Enora, Yuriy Borisov, Karren Karagulian… When I was writing, I already had the faces of three characters in mind, which is very rare, it was much easier.
One of the originalities of the film comes from the way you constantly mix humor, tension, romance, violence, sex…
This dosage was adjusted at each stage of the development of the film, during writing, then on set, where we moved towards something more exuberant, before revisiting this balance during editing.
In Cannes, you gave a speech in praise of cinema in theaters…
Entertainment designed to be seen at home or on your tablet is not what I’m looking for. I will never make films if they go directly to a streaming platform and cannot benefit from a theatrical release.
Your Palme d’Or was seen as symbolic support for fragile American independent cinema…
Independent cinema is in great difficulty in the United States. Spectators who continue to go to theaters are increasingly going there mainly for blockbusters. Studios are reluctant to finance films with slightly unusual subjects. The first question they ask you when you submit a project to them is: “With which star?” » But I’m not looking for stars. I want the fairest and most credible actor to play the character. I don’t care about his reputation, his experience… It’s difficult to produce films while remaining faithful to this desire to offer human cinema. The Palme d’Or was an important support.
Francis Ford Coppola was also in competition at Cannes with “Megalopolis”, did you have any discussions with him?
For me, he is THE independent filmmaker par excellence. When I received the award, he sent me a very nice email. He signed it “Uncle Francis”.
“Anora,” by Sean Baker. Duration: 2 hours 19 minutes. Released October 30.
The movie
Anora (Mikey Madison), a young penniless prostitute, knows everything about life. Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), Russian heir, ultra bling-bling, behaves like an immature spoiled child. Between the two of them, suddenly, an improbable love at first sight. But Ivan’s family, scandalized, demands that this romance stop all affairs, and launches three big guns after the couple. The romantic comedy turns into a crazy chase through Brooklyn. Breathtaking, the story never stops bouncing. This inventive, entertaining epic is also sharp, and bitter, in its evocation of American society: the feelings of the just and upright Anora are smashed against the wall of class contempt. A good film, that’s for sure. A great film? Maybe not. It is not as moving as “Florida Project” or “Tangerine”, Sean Baker’s previous feature films.
