Don't Look Back (2009 film)

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Don't Look Back (Ne te retourne pas) is a 2009 French thriller film.

Jeanne, a married mother of two, starts noticing small changes to her surroundings. Each time something changes, everyone she asks says it has always been that way, leading Jeanne to wonder whether things really are changing or whether she's going crazy. Combining newly appearing clues with her inconsistent memories, Jeanne sets off on a Quest for Identity to find out the truth.

Not to be confused with the 1967 documentary about Bob Dylan.

Tropes used in Don't Look Back (2009 film) include:
  • Boat Lights: Sported by characters midway through their transformations.
  • Body Horror
  • Brother-Sister Incest: Jeanne and Gianni have reason to suspect that they're related. Doesn't stop them for but a moment. And it turns out they are.
  • Heroic Bastard: Rosa Maria was born from an extramarital affair. It's why her mother gave her away.
  • Loss of Identity: The changes lead Jeanne to start wondering if her life is actually real or if she's actually insane.
  • Quest for Identity
  • Psychological Horror: Is the world changing and you're the only one to notice, or have you gone mad and you're the only one not to notice?
  • Replacement Goldfish: The real Jeanne died in the car crash, and her mother raised Rosa Maria to take her place.
  • Scars Are Forever: Jeanne starts with a prominent scar on her leg from a childhood car accident, but it disappears as her transformation progresses.
  • Split Personality Merge: A possible interpretation of the plot. Eight-year-old Rosa Maria's personality has been locked away ever since the car crash. In the process of writing her book, Jeanne begins unlocking those memories and merging them with her own. When she mistakes Rosa Maria's memories of the past with her memories of the present, it seems the world has "transformed from what it used to look like" when it's actually her own memories which have changed.
  • Through the Eyes of Madness
  • Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Jeanne can't remember anything about her life before a traumatic car crash when she was eight years old.