His Dark Materials series three gets released on HBO Max this Monday, 5 December. It'll be later in December on the BBC. I'm rewatching series one and two because it is so good and Dafne Keen is such a good actress. I'm at 1x07 now.
A good director will know that if you have a good actress you can just let a scene play out by having a continuous close-up of her face and you don't actually need to see the scene itself. I've seen that done with great effect several times, as it is here with Dafne Keen.
The first time I was aware of this choice of shot was long ago when Emilia Fox was an unknown actress, two super famous actors were doing a scene and her character had no lines or involvement in that scene. Yet the director realised her talent over those super famous people and had the camera just on her face this whole long scene. It was very powerful. And a very courageous thing to do for the director, given the difference in industry standing. (I think it's in the director's handbook under what to do if your two stars have an off day and the new girl is very talented)
Only one day left for the rewatch. Series two has only seven episodes, though. I still haven't heard the explanation why the BBC suddenly cancelled one of the eight episodes (was it after filming, or just before). It made the ending of series two a bit weird.
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