THE STORY – Photographer David Zimmerman rarely leaves home until friends bring him to a wild party. He becomes fixated on a mysterious woman and follows her. By dawn, his life transforms – he awakens in her body.
THE CAST – Léa Seydoux, Niels Schneider, Victoire Du Bois, Radu Jude & Valérie Dréville
THE TEAM – Arthur Harari (Director/Writer), Lucas Harari & Vincent Poymiro (Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 139 minutes
“And if I only could, I’d make a deal with God, and I’d get Him to swap our places.” So goes a repeated refrain in Kate Bush’s song “Running Up That Hill,” a masterpiece of musical composition about wishing to experience the point of view of a lover, putting into poetry the idea of wanting to be so close to someone that you become them, even if briefly. Arthur Harari’s (co-writer for “Anatomy Of A Fall“) bizarre new film “The Unknown” ruminates on that same idea of transference, but with an energy and perspective closer to abstract horror than elevated romantic daydreams. It’s a twisted, unsettling affair that’s given much-needed energy from a lead performance by the always-reliable Cannes fixture Léa Seydoux. But Harari refuses to give the audience any sort of foothold, telling his humorless, self-serious story in too sparse a manner for any connection to be made between the art and the observer.
The film opens by following a man on a winding journey home, first by car and then on foot. His name is David (Niels Schneider), and he’s a photographer working on a project that was first begun by his father, wherein he snaps photos of buildings in the present day from the same location as shots taken by his father, who based them on postcards of these spots from before his time. As he later mentions, David is following through with the project “to show what has disappeared.” This reveal, later in the film, offers the closest insight the film provides into any thematic angle for the odd story that unfolds.
Soon thereafter, things get very strange very quickly. David wanders to a huge party, where he locks eyes with a gorgeous woman we later learn is named Eve (played by Seydoux). With their connection established, they move away from the rest of the party, find a secluded spot, and wordlessly have sex. Immediately afterward, Eve falls asleep, and David departs. Upon waking and heading home, the person we believe to be Eve clearly feels that something is wrong. In fact, Eve and David have switched bodies. David (for purposes of clarity, I’ll be referring to the names of the souls of the characters rather than their physical forms) understandably freaks out, leading to the first of many, many, many scenes of Seydoux expertly portraying stressed-out fearfulness.
Although the concept sounds like the makings of a French comedy, this is far from a “Freaky Friday” (Le Vendredi Freaky?) type of romp. “The Unknown” presents this situation for the horrifying, upsetting, totally ego-shattering nightmare it would be were it to actually happen. David is beyond distraught, unsure how to continue, but eventually determined to find Eve and thus reunite with his original corporeal form.
Being that “The Unknown” follows a woman’s search for a possibly-unreachable truth, doing her best to find clues along the way, it seems to have all the makings of a neo-noir; even Andrew Poggio’s gorgeously dramatic piano score fits into this subgenre, conjuring up an appropriately moody, dreadful atmosphere. Except these characters aren’t even half as chatty as the typical figures found in those mysterious films. Like everything else about the movie, the screenplay is scant, instead relying heavily on the actors’ expressive faces rather than spoken dialogue. This muting decision isn’t entirely senseless, as these characters are mostly isolated with few people to talk to after their switcheroo, not to mention their voices are literally not their own. But the film doesn’t find variety in much else it presents, leading to long stretches where it feels, to put it mildly, like nothing is happening.
This empty feeling isn’t helped by Harari’s repeated choice to focus the camera on the two main actors as they simply stare. They stare at each other, they stare at other characters, and they stare into the camera—lots and lots of staring, as if “The Unknown” is one big cinematic staring contest. Seydoux, talent that she is, achieves the superhuman and somehow finds variety in the energy she puts out during these sequences, thanks in part to her big eyes, which fill with tears. But still, all of this blank imagery is so tiring to witness. It eventually feels like Harari is playing a mean prank on the audience.
Schneider is less adept at finding a definitive read on his character than Seydoux. He has a generally nervous, haunted quality to him, but his performance feels less guided by honesty than his screen partner’s. But it’s hard to blame him when his director has totally abandoned him, refusing to give his actors playable actions besides “keep staring!”
With a central concept that seems totally bendable to a variety of interpretations, it’s a wonder the film seems uninterested in choosing a lane when it comes to theme, message, or a generally relatable purpose. I was left helplessly wondering about a wide array of topics, any of which could’ve been expanded upon by the film. There’s the question of the true self, and how much of us can be considered singularly ourselves, if any, given how easily those around us influence us. Or, as previously mentioned regarding the original-David’s photo project, we can wonder whether a place or a person remains the same when every definable detail has changed, à la the Ship of Theseus. And perhaps most glaringly, the film seems to be leading us toward an exploration of gender and identity, and how much of what many in the world see as a biological, binary concept is actually less fixed and more performance-based. But the film seems disinterested in carrying on any discussion itself, even in an obtuse way. Perhaps that’s the idea: that we’re meant to completely project our assessment onto the film rather than follow nonexistent leads from Harari as to his intention. But ultimately, the film is too vacant, too aimless, and worst of all, too dull to inspire much worthwhile discussion.
