Ne Te Retourne Pas (Don't Look Back) (2009)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Aditya G

  
  Marina de Van's 2009 French thriller "Don't Look Back" actually had potential! If only the promise shown in the first half of the movie had lived up till the end, "Don't Look Back" could have been a solid example of a must-see, psychological… More
  Marina de Van's 2009 French thriller "Don't Look Back" actually had potential! If only the promise shown in the first half of the movie had lived up till the end, "Don't Look Back" could have been a solid example of a must-see, psychological thriller. But alas! So is not the case! [img]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0LxXPT4UKOk/TkFZHNhH2kI/AAAAAAAAB98/eImPr09UvDE/Don%252527t.Look.Back.2009.720p.BluRay.x264-WiKi.mkv_snapshot_00.10.43_%25255B2011.08.09_21.27.19%25255D.jpg[/img] Jeanne (Sophie Marceau), a writer by profession lives in a plush apartment with her two children and husband Teo (Andrea Di Stefano). A strange encounter with a little girl triggers a string of events that seem to be visible only to Jeanne. These events particularly involve "changes". By changes, we do not mean changes in someone's behavior or circumstances. These are physical changes...we are talking a complete metamorphosis; as she sees the arrangement of furniture in her house changing...she sees even some of the interiors in the house changing..and little by little the changes frighteningly start to happen in the physical appearances of her children, her husband and her own self......Jeanne knows what she is seeing isn't imagination, yet as everything around her, including her own appearance change in a way that they start to look like different people altogether, others around her insist that this is the way it has always been! Even when she sees her own video recordings she sees the 'other' woman in the footage that actually belongs to her! Baffled, as Jeanne is, just like us shocked viewers, her 'changed' self, the new Jeanne (Monica Bellucci) tries to find some answers to this situation, using only one old photograph she finds in her mother's place, as a clue... [img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-p_EVEMgfmKw/TkFZHMf16cI/AAAAAAAAB90/1xrcHGtXivA/Don%252527t.Look.Back.2009.720p.BluRay.x264-WiKi.mkv_snapshot_00.38.33_%25255B2011.08.09_21.19.45%25255D.jpg[/img] For the first half, the film keeps us glued to our seats with its highly innovative and outlandish plot and its use of some interesting special effects. Yes..we must talk special effects here, as at one point, when the change is "in progress", you actually see a lady that is a "mix" of Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci...of course, this woman isn't a pleasant sight to watch, as half her features resemble those of Bellucci and the other half look like those belonging to Marceau (gasp!)!. This is not a perfect half-n-half either...it is a strange "blend", as this partly 'changed' woman has the eyes of Monica Bellucci, the mouth of Sophie Marceau, a nose that is part Bellucci - part Marceau, and so on! It is this aspect of the effects that I particularly was in awe of. It was done so well...likewise the other characters, but their changes aren't shown to be as realistic as those seen in the central character. [img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-bsrbbnHfx4g/TkFath6KSmI/AAAAAAAAB94/eJkunzuKCWQ/Don%252527t.Look.Back.2009.720p.BluRay.x264-WiKi.mkv_snapshot_01.25.18_%25255B2011.08.09_21.34.46%25255D.jpg[/img] Nonetheless, it is when Jeanne (Monica Bellucci) finds an old photograph that she believes will give her some answers to the spooky happenings, that the film starts descending the downward spiral! What could've been a truly awesome Kafkaesque or even Lynchian thriller, succumbs to the "trying to wrap everything in a neat package" syndrome, as the writers actually start dishing out some "realistic" answers pertaining to the "real world" to a plot built around surrealism! And not surprisingly, this approach actually does the film a lot of disservice, as the conclusion seems so contrived and unconvincing, that it renders the rest of the happenings illogical and more incoherent even from the perspective of the "unreal" world! Real world justifications (especially lame ones) for unreal happenings just don't hold water...and perhaps Marina de Van forgot this little fact! The two lovely ladies do their job quite well and their astonishment at the bizarre things happening to them is convincingly portrayed. The filmmaking itself is atmospheric and visually brilliant until things start to steadily march towards their tepid conclusion. "Don't Look Back" can certainly be looked at once, because it is something you may not have seen before. After that one watch, however, it is simply not worth looking back at, even if you hope to find answers to certain things you may have missed...cause you won't! Score: 7/10

• Lewis C

  
  "I don't recognize anything. Not even my own face." Don't Look Back isn't an easy movie to wrap my thoughts around and review, and unfortunately, it also wasn't very appealing. Despite the irresistible presence of Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci, I… More
  "I don't recognize anything. Not even my own face." Don't Look Back isn't an easy movie to wrap my thoughts around and review, and unfortunately, it also wasn't very appealing. Despite the irresistible presence of Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci, I found it hard to finish this movie. That's quite an accomplishment, now that I think about it. What we have here is an effort to communicate the perspective of a woman whose home, family, and very appearance seem to be (literally and drastically) changing before her eyes. It confuses her, and I can virtually guarantee that it will confuse you, too. Don't Look Back is not a challenging movie (I'm guessing that's the intent with which it was created), it's a nonsensical one. There's a definite attempt here to make a psychological thriller in the mold of Polanski's Repulsion mixed with a hefty serving of Lynch-style weirdness and mystery, but it's not grounded in anything substantial, captivatingly surreal, atmospheric, or ultimately human. At best, it's this movie is based on a potentially good idea run horribly amok. At worst, it's an overly long train-wreck with no point that unfortunately squanders two stunning and talented actresses. Aside from one of two interesting sequences, Don't Look Back isn't worth the trouble or the frustration.

• Greg S

  
  A French writer loses her ability to recognize her surroundings; her apartment becomes unfamiliar, her husband looks like a stranger, and eventually even the face she sees in the mirror is another woman's, until she follows a clue in a photograph and discovers a secret about her… More
  A French writer loses her ability to recognize her surroundings; her apartment becomes unfamiliar, her husband looks like a stranger, and eventually even the face she sees in the mirror is another woman's, until she follows a clue in a photograph and discovers a secret about her own identity. This psychological mystery is a bit slow moving and the movie lays on the horror music cues a bit too thick, but Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci give wonderful performances as the same woman in two different bodies.

• Justin Y

  
  Marina de Van's <i>Ne Te Retourne Pas</i> comes in the form of a mystery drama with some intrigue.<p>At an hour and 45 minutes, <i>Ne Te Retourne Pas</i> is a tale of two halves. The first half moves along rather slowly, although the sense of… More
  Marina de Van's <i>Ne Te Retourne Pas</i> comes in the form of a mystery drama with some intrigue.<p>At an hour and 45 minutes, <i>Ne Te Retourne Pas</i> is a tale of two halves. The first half moves along rather slowly, although the sense of secrecy and ambiguity with the plot is really high. This seizes the audience in, while providing little setup and leaving answers few and far in between. The camerawork and musical score also do wonders in this portion.</p><p>The second half is all about finding answers, as at this point, the visually amusing character transformation is complete. The mysterious feel of the picture diminishes, but the interest level picks up.</p><p>Both European beauties, Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci, successfully carry their portion of the film, while playing the same character. As one disappears, another shows up. Marceau fulfills the first act and Bellucci the second.</p><p>Patience is a key to unraveling the story of <i>Ne Te Retourne Pas</i>. Is it worth it? Take a chance and <i>Don't Look Back</i>.</p>

• Walter M

  
  In "Don't Look Back," Jeanne(Sophie Marceau) is a successful writer of nonfiction in all of its varieties but cannot get her editor to accept her novel which she is using to try to unearth lost childhood memories. In any case, her and her husband Teo(Andrea Di Stefano)… More
  In "Don't Look Back," Jeanne(Sophie Marceau) is a successful writer of nonfiction in all of its varieties but cannot get her editor to accept her novel which she is using to try to unearth lost childhood memories. In any case, her and her husband Teo(Andrea Di Stefano) have enough money to afford a videocamera with which they shoot footage of their two children in an attempt to have something to embarrass them later as adults. Strangely, Jeanne notices not only them signaling on the tape but also changes in the apartment which she at first puts down to Teo moving around the furniture behind her back. If only it was all that simple... "Don't Look Back" has an intriguing windup and some memorable images. However, outside of one scene that hits the mark with unsettling accuracy, the payoff is kind of disappointing, as it leaves as many questions unanswered as it resolves. And it is not just that the movie does not go far enough.(For example, if Jeanne had been turning into Bob Dylan, that might have been too disturbing.) It is also that this wastes a valuable opportunity to explore via analogy the changes that women go through as they age.

• Andre T

  
  Directed by Marina de Van, and starring Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci.Jeanne, a married woman with two young children, starts to notice small changes taking place in the arrangement of objects in her family's home-furniture, pictures, rooms-as well as in her physical… More
  Directed by Marina de Van, and starring Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci.Jeanne, a married woman with two young children, starts to notice small changes taking place in the arrangement of objects in her family's home-furniture, pictures, rooms-as well as in her physical appearance. She seems to be the only one noticing these changes, but still she is absolutely certain that her perceptions are a result of something profound, and are not caused by stress or fatigue, as everyone else seems to think. Feeling increasingly out of sorts, ever more distant, and even psychologically cut off from her husband and children, who are baffled by her behavior, Jeanne goes to her mother in the hope that she, at least, will provide for her some clarification or otherwise soothing solution. At her mother's home, Jeanne comes across a photograph of what she believes, or has been led to believe, is herself as a young girl, her mother, and another woman. What she sees in that photograph moves her to travel to Italy in order to track down the woman in the photograph. In Italy, Jeanne finds the woman, and in a way, discovers herself as well. She begins to solve the mystery behind her changes, and comes to learn the truth about herself.Too much complex and with a "cerebral/filosophical/psichological" thriller pretension.But this movie fails in a overdose of a kind of mind trip in the real world mixed with illusions and more complexity.Well, forget it.

• John M

  
  The atmosphere is sometimes pretty creepy, the production values are very well done and the performances from Marceau and Bellucci are very good but this film doesn't really follow through with the promises it makes in the first 20 minutes and the story was not great nor good… More
  The atmosphere is sometimes pretty creepy, the production values are very well done and the performances from Marceau and Bellucci are very good but this film doesn't really follow through with the promises it makes in the first 20 minutes and the story was not great nor good either and felt too far fetched and dragged on and the outcome of the mystery was not really worth the wait (almost 2 hours) with a few holes in the story.

• Daisy M

  
  Don't Look Back was a psychological drama starring two beautiful actresses, Monica Bellucci and Sophie Marceau who played the same role of Jeanne. Sophie Marceau had the leading role at the beginning, playing Jeanne who was married, 2 kids,and a successful writer. She lost her… More
  Don't Look Back was a psychological drama starring two beautiful actresses, Monica Bellucci and Sophie Marceau who played the same role of Jeanne. Sophie Marceau had the leading role at the beginning, playing Jeanne who was married, 2 kids,and a successful writer. She lost her memory in a car accident when she was eight and she wanted to bring back her childhood memory to the new novel she was planning to write. Then she transformed to Monica Belluccii and the story unfold different personality, as she was on her quest to discover who she really was.Both actresses perform perfectly the role, they showed real feeling for their life's search.I liked the movie for the storyline, kept me interesting till the end.

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