Anora

We would like you to Audio Describe ‘Anora’, they said. Fine, I said. I had not already seen it, but I was well aware of its great success at this year’s Oscars, so was excited to have an opportunity to watch it.

First impressions? It’s hard not to think of Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, given the first act of the story treads a very similar path to the 1990’s film ‘Pretty Woman’ (full disclosure: I was working at my local Odeon as an usher when this film came out, so I had to sit in the auditorium on multiple occasions while it was being shown and, as a result, I know Pretty Woman pretty well), albeit ‘Anora’ removes much of the gloss and provides a much more modern take: less Hollywood-schmaltz, more gritty, and to be honest, at times, graphic, realism. Uber rich boy falls for (in this story) street-smart, exotic dancer.

So far, so good. But in the second act the story takes a tonal swerve, with the arrival of several Russian (or to be precise, Armenian) heavies in the employ of the boy’s disapproving, zillionaire parents. And that’s where the fun really started in terms of Audio Description. In a regular English-language movie, an Audio Describer is simply there to provide description, but in this Russia meets US mix, once the Armenians insert themselves into proceedings, the subtitles come thick and fast. So, the question is: how to approach this?

Firstly, there’s the question of performance in the delivery of those subtitles, to distinguish them from the description itself. Then, accepting that the rat-a-tat dialogue is delivered at pace, it is almost impossible to intersperse, ‘he said’ ,‘she said’ because, as a describer, I want the users to hear the absolute maximum possible subtitles. One could use different voices to signify the different characters speaking (which we have done in other movies). But in this case, I’ve tried, with vocal intonations to make it clear when one character finishes speaking and another one starts. One thing that was discussed amongst the Audio-Describers regarding this specific movie, was that, at a few moments, not only is the Russian (subtitled) dialogue going back and forth, but Anora’s character is speaking over them in English. Tricky. In these few cases we decided it was best to allow Anora’s lines to be heard unhindered by me reading out the subtitles over the top.

I did enjoy the movie very much. Times have definitely changed since I sat watching ‘Pretty Woman’ at the Odeon, waiting to sell tubs of ice-cream or popcorn. I thought ‘Anora’ was fresh and engaging, both funny and sad. Some of the material is, given the subject matter, quite adult at times, but the movie has at its heart a terrific, fearless performance from Mikey Madison, as Annie, who rightfully won this year’s Best Actress Oscar. I hope you enjoy it too.

This is airing on Friday 13th June 2025