Season 5 of Mad Men came to a close with a long pull-back, holding still on Don Draper's face as his wife, Megan--on set for her first television comercial shoot and in full costume--recedes further and further into the darkness, gradually becoming smaller and smaller in frame as Don walks toward us. I'm told the effect has receieved mixed reviews online but I found it wonderful. Emotionally arresting in the way all great filmmaking is. The visual reflects the emotional. Period. So much so that writing about it tends to deaden its effect.
So I'll not say too much more about it other than to point out its obvious homage to William Wyler's use of the same shot to convey the same emotional transition in the brilliant film Roman Holiday in which after a couple of days together, Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn's characters finally face the reality that they are (and will be) forever worlds apart. Here's a shot from the original: