jcnsoflorida I'm an American w/ some familiarity w/ Antwerp and I enjoyed seeing it on film. The influence of Rosemary's Baby is obvious. While this is not in the same league, it does have some things going for it: good photography and music and 2 good leads: Schoenaerts and Eline Kuppens. (I'm not sure how good Schoenaerts is but he's nude 5 minutes after it begins so I can forgive a lot.) Probably the weak link here is the screenplay. The ending makes no sense whatsoever but getting there was enjoyable enough that I didn't much care. Atmospherics, mood, that kind of thing can be incredibly important in a film and Left Bank is quite good in the mood department. It helps too, of course, that the film is anchored by 2 strong performances.

Pozdnyshev Eh, another horror film that looks good but is annoying instead of scary or at least interesting. The biggest problem by far was the lead character, some moody young runner chick whom I just can't empathize with. She's boring, self-absorbed, and never seems to show kindness to anyone, so I don't care about her. She's not even that fit or attractive. Also, the filmmaker's showing you her heavy period stains followed by her finding a mess of black powder inside her panties, which she just dusts off before pulling them up again -- I don't care if she's a chick, that's gross! I also don't understand why the filmmakers insisted on showing her naked or half-naked so much -- maybe they think it shows how vulnerable she is, or it's some kind of statement about separating the female body from sexuality, but it just made me horny. It felt inappropriate - this is obviously marketed as a serious horror movie, not a damn softcore porn. On top of that there's a predictable plot about human sacrifice on Halloween that's nothing new and has been done better. I guess I didn't like this movie very much, but that's hard to admit because it LOOKED good and the acting was okay.

davdecrane A kind of Rosemary's Baby meets Dark Water, Left Bank unfortunately has more in common with the latter's fascination with mood over a new or just tightly cogent story. Left Bank is better than most J-horror remakes but takes too long to get to the genre trappings it ultimately relies on. The lead, Eline Kuppens, is believable as an athlete and is competent in her acting but doesn't have any real screen charisma. The role really requires the European counterpart to a Mia Farrow or Naomi Watts, especially in the long opening section which plays more as a psychological thriller than horror film. That too is a problem: the story, which is neither terribly new or frightening, just takes too long to admit for all its psychological tension, it's nothing more than a horror pic. As such, it fails to deliver a truly quirky scenario and strikes out totally when it comes to real scares.

dbdumonteil The Val Lewton productions were the first movies which introduced unusual things and irrational into daily life :best example remains "the seventh victim" directed by Mark Robson in 1943;both Polanski's horror movies "Le Locataire" aka "the tenant" and Rosemary's baby -here the major influence- are part of THAT tradition too.And most amazing thing,Belgian Andre Delvaux's works mix dream/nightmare with a disturbed reality too.The black and white documentary Marie watches has something eerie ,something irrational ,something frightening ;the people's face are bizarre,almost threatening:how not to think of this little odd film Yves Montand and his mates watch in a tiny movie theater in an (imaginary?) village."Left Bank" takes place in the wrong side of town ,a vague curse hangs over this place -like the Bradford building.A series of bizarre warnings,of mysterious disappearances ;Marie is like Alice,she is on the other side of the mirror .Bobby is an athletic self-assured boy he's got nothing of a Guy Woodhouse.And her Mamie is no Minnie Castevet either.And however,Marie is more and more alone except for the short moments she shares with Dirk (who plays more or less the part of Hutch).When the movie begins ,Marie is a well-balanced girl ,isn't she a race champion?Her rational world is going to crumble as she begins to suffer physically and mentally.Events which happened a long time ago seems to happen again (or to be about to happen again).The sun rarely shines on this "black hole" .The scene in the cemetery is so dark the picture seems to be black and white.SPOILER.In fact ,the only really luminous scene is the birth.As Beth Gibbons 's magnificent "mysteries" -an exact equivalent of Rosemary's lullaby- fills the air,a long tracking depicts the urban landscape -another subconscious ? tribute to Polanski."Linkeroever" has something deadly ,something demonic ,a movie which leaves questions unresolved ;no horror and fantasy buff can be impervious to its charm.