A moody identity thriller delivers a sharp tonal shift, drawing influence from Blow-Up and possibly The Tenant. The film is based on the graphic novel The Case of David Zimmerman, written by Arthur Harari and Lucas Harari. Niels Schneider plays David, a brooding photographer who moves through life with a ghostlike presence. At a party, Eva and David connect, leading to an abrupt body-swap after sex. Eva returns to David’s place and discovers she is David in Eva’s body. The story leans into the comedy of the premise, including frantic searches for body-switching explanations and an experimental drug. Eva investigates further as Schneider’s body becomes occupied by a third character.
"Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up" is an obvious influence, and there may be shades of Roman Polanski's "The Tenant," too. The source is actually a graphic novel, "The Case of David Zimmerman," that Harari wrote with Lucas Harari, his brother. Niels Schneider plays David, a brooding, emaciated, slightly disheveled photographer who skulks through life with a ghostly presence and a faintly biblical hairstyle."
"We learn that his family worries about him. At a party, he makes eyes with Eva (Léa Seydoux); Harari zooms into her gaze-and boom, the two of them rush to a basement to have sex, as if possessed. The lovemaking seems especially passionate for Eva, who leaves in a daze and has to be helped to a cab. She goes back to David's place and, after some confused self-inspection, realizes that she is David-in Eva's body."
""The Unknown" doesn't shy from the comedy inherent in its body-swap-by-sex conceit. Seydoux's character does frantic internet searches on "switching bodies" and "new experimental hallucinatory drug." After some sleuthing, she locates Schneider (whose physique is by that point occupied by a third character)."
Read at Roger Ebert
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