MATT SMITH and NANNA BLONDELL as DAEMON TARGARYEN and LAENA VELARYON in HOUSE OF THE DRAGON | 1x06 ' The Princess and The Queen'

Annette - Leos Carax

Annette's trailer is beyond masterful. It sets its tone completely, teases at plot just so and promises "ABSOLUTE CINEMA" in big bold French words. But it's the promise that Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard will twirl aboard a ship while a storm rages and waves swirl to impossible heights around them that made me believe it could fulfill Carax's promise and deliver cinema absolutely.

To a large extent, Carax does if you'd agree that cinema is something total and felt; a vibe, an experience. Plot? Throw it out the window. A great performance? Welcome but not crucial. It is spectacle, in all its forms, that is necessary.

When I watched Annette, I felt it as an experience. If it was a good or bad experience isn't important because, who cares when Carax has a deeply disconcerting singing puppet floating about? I was looking forward to was capturing a few stills to share how wildly and completely we get to see Carax's imagination. But all I have to share is Cotillard as a ghostly geisha slowly disappearing on a highway. The scene on the boat? Impossible to capture. The Annette doll? You can't get its cute/creepy little leg shake it does in a still image. Can you share spectacle? Everything looks flat in a screen grab.

Some things should just, with no context or purpose, be experienced.