The Unknown

Arthur Harari’s The Unknown opens at a costume party, where David Zimmerman (Niels Schneider) wanders among the guests, seemingly bewildered by the festivities around him. There is no obvious source of danger, yet an atmosphere of unease makes it difficult to establish whether the film is a psychological drama, a thriller or something stranger. That uncertainty takes a more disturbing turn when David spends the night with the mysterious Eva (Léa Seydoux), only to wake up in her body.

Body-swapping is usually the territory of broad comedy, with its mistaken identities and the absurdities of impersonation. Harari takes an entirely different approach, exploring the disturbing implications of the phenomenon. For David, a withdrawn photographer already seemingly uncomfortable with his own existence, the transformation makes an unfamiliar world even more difficult to navigate.

The Unknown has very little of the expected complications of pretending to be someone else. Both characters lead fairly isolated lives, without conventional nine-to-five jobs or extensive social obligations that might require elaborate deception. They inhabit anonymous corners of Paris, where their sudden changes in behaviour attract surprisingly little attention. There is something neo-noir about the gradual piecing together of identities, particularly in the role photography plays in their unlikely connection. Yet The Unknown is hardly a conventional mystery, as the circumstances of the exchange become increasingly sinister without necessarily becoming any clearer.

As with any body-swap film, much depends on its leads. Seydoux conveys David’s disorientation in Eva’s body through prolonged hesitations and a persistent, uncanny awkwardness in her movements. Schneider is equally convincing as further complications arise. Both performances are remarkably restrained given the outlandish premise, balancing out the film’s increasingly bizarre developments.

As the feature enters its second half, however, Harari’s ambitions begin to exceed his control of the material. More identities enter the picture, expanding the narrative well beyond David and Eva, while the initial psychological intrigue gives way to an increasingly convoluted series of developments. The Unknown is a strikingly original, almost experimental interpretation of a familiar premise, anchored by two excellent performances that make a bizarre situation genuinely disturbing. Yet its growing complexity does not necessarily amount to greater depth, and the movie ultimately loses sight of the intimate predicament that made it so compelling in the first place.

Christina Yang

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