The distance between the pair is exaggerated by Carax’s ingenious use of blocking and focus they’re survivors but still very much in danger. Washed up on a rock after a boating accident that claimed the life of his wife Ann, Adam Driver’s caustic stand-up comic Henry McHenry sees their daughter Annette looking at the moon. As befits a fable about the ravages of celebrity and fame, they’re blinded by the stars in their eyes. Time and again in Annette, Leos Carax catches his characters-human and marionette alike-gazing off toward some distant vanishing point. Annette Directed by Leos Carax (Amazon Studios) Amazon Studios

Here are 10 frames from 2021 that were already living rent-free in my mind’s eye. For me, it’s the feeling that comes when you’re looking at something for the first time but it already feels like an instant replay-like something that had always been there. As usual, this list is anything but definitive, and the question of what makes for a great shot is deeply subjective.

In 2021, the screens got big again, and the most powerful viewing experiences came courtesy of movies-and directors-who knew how to fill them, whether with rapturous close-ups, dazzling camera movement, or looming, lunar expanses of negative space.

It’s the screens that got small,” I wrote last year while inventorying 2020’s best shots.

10 best cinematography shots ever