Don't Look Back

Don't Look Back is a black and white 1967 movie directed by legendary documentarian D.A. Pennebaker. It records folk/rock singer Bob Dylan's tour of Britain in 1965. At that time, Dylan was already a big star, with highly devoted fans on both sides of the Atlantic.

The bulk of the film is made up of backstage scenes, with Dylan dealing with the press and often angry fans. These scenes show Dylan playing the surly rock star, dark glasses permanently affixed to his face and a snarl on his lips. Dylan's then manager Albert Grossman has a prominent role. Another famous face is British folkie Donovan, famed for such twee hits as "Mellow Yellow" and "Jennifer Juniper" as well as the more gutsy anti-Vietnam war song "Universal Soldier". Donovan was considered Dylan's leading rival at the time, although this is laughable in hindsight, and the two meet in the film and try to be really nice to each other.

The film features a number of Dylan classics, including the famous Subterranean Homesick Blues sequence where he stands in an alleyway with a bunch of cue cards. Among the other songs he performs are To Ramona, Love Minus Zero/No Limit, It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (directed at Donovan), The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll and It Ain't Me, Babe. Joan Baez sings Percy's Song, although her friendship with Dylan apparently ended during filming. British pop star Alan Price also appears, while Bob Neuwirth duets with Dylan on a version of Lost Highway.

Don't Look Back shows Bob Dylan both to be a genius and a bastard. Each of these facets make it enormously entertaining viewing; it's the sort of film that almost no star nowadays would even allow to be made. Combining historical value, musical excellence and some very funny sequences, it is a classic of documentary film-making.

The main credits are:

Director: D.A. Pennebaker
Writer: D.A. Pennebaker
Producers: John Court, Albert Grossman
Cinematography: Howard Alk, James Alk, D.A. Pennebaker
Editor: D.A. Pennebaker
Production Design: James D. Bissell
Sound: Robert Van Dyke

A 2009 French psychological thriller originally titled "Ne te retourne pas." Jeanne, an author of biographies, begins noticing small changes in her life. First, the dining room table is facing a different direction. Then, pieces of furniture are replaced. Eventually, even the appearances of her husband, her children and herself become unrecognizable. Because of an accident, Jeanne has no memory from before she was eight, which her husband suspects is the cause. But, Jeanne believes something sinister is going on as every aspect of her life changes. Directed by Marina de Van and starring Sophie Marceau and Monica Belluci, this film is engaging and intriguing to the end.

Don't Look Back is a little confusing towards the end, but here's what I interpret the whole story to be (Massive, movie-killing spoilers ahead):

There are two families, a French one with an eight-year-old girl named Jeanne, and an Italian one with an eight-year-old girl named Rose Maria, and a boy named Gianni. Rose Maria's father resents her because she is not his child, so she is sent to live with the French family. The French family, including Rose Maria, are in a car accident which kills Jeanne and leave Rose Maria with no memory. After the accident, Rose Maria believes she is Jeanne, and the French mother does not try to convince her otherwise, but does not love her as much as her "real" child.

In adulthood, "Jeanne" has a husband and two children, and regularly sees her mother. But, she still has the Italian family and the original Jeanne floating around her mind, as it were, and replaces them with the people in her own life. Her husband becomes her Italian brother, her mother becomes her Italian mother, and she becomes the adult Jeanne would have been. These replacements are the people we see at the beginning of the film. The alterations, the changed people, are who they really are. This is why the original husband looks exactly like the adult Gianni, and why the dark-haired Rose Maria grows up to be the dark-haired Jeanne, and the first version of adult Jeanne has light hair, like the blonde child Jeanne. This is also why the last image we see of the family and apartment is the altered version - that's how things have always been, but now Jeanne can see it, too.