Anora was announced in the Criterion Collection before it swept the Oscars. Also, as remarkable as a film championing sex work is, Criterion platforming it to the highbrow crowd is another great step.
Since the film is current, there are tons of interviews and conversations, and over an hour long raw behind the scenes feature at various points in producction.
The standout of those bonus features is a Q&A with Mikey Madison and Lindsay Normington for an audience of dancers and sex workers. It’s more than that though because they talk in the car on the way too, but get deeper into the technique of dancing and culture of the clubs. Moderator Laura Arbois, a dancer herself, asks better questions than most film moderators I’ve been subject to.
Seven minutes of deleted scenes show how Ani (Madison) handles other customers, more partying with Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), falling in love with him and a brief sex scene.
A collection of auditions does not include Eydelshteyn. Apparently he was naked in his, so perhaps they couldn’t clear that despite the explicit content in the film itself.
Both commentaries are scene specific. The actors enter the conversation as their characters appear on screen. The filmmakers saved some new information including unused songs and plans to drop the title Anora very late in the film. They get into aesthetic techniques more deeply.
It is rare for any film to shoot in 35mm today and Anora stands out from other modern 4K releases for it. The grit of New York City is there but also the bright clarity in daylight scenes. Yet the club scenes still hold up in 4K.
Club music plays in surround sound, sometimes blasting and other times more subtly in the background.