Joan Lui


Joan Lui is a 1985 Italian musical-comedy film written, directed and starred by Adriano Celentano. It is the last of the four films written and directed by Celentano.

Plot

Title character Joan Lui is a singer who has come from another world to condemn the hypocrisy and atrocities of the Western culture. When he arrives in Italy, he seeks to create a musical group composed of young beginners to better spread his message. After having exposed the deception of a major musical producer, Joan Lui disappears into thin air. Meanwhile, the world is plunged into a terrible apocalypse.

Cast

  1. L'uomo perfetto
  2. Sex without love
  3. Il tempio
  4. Mistero
  5. Lunedì
  6. Qualcosa nascerà
  7. Splendida e nuda
  8. L' ora è guinta
  9. La prima stella

    Production

The film was also the center of a dispute between Mario and Vittorio Cecchi Gori and Celentano as the producers decided, a month after the first release, to replace the original cut with another version, with a different editing and lasting 30 minutes less.

Reception

The film was a box office bomb, grossing 7.3 billion lire at the Italian box office in spite of a budget of about 20 billion lire.
The film also received generally bad reviews. Morando Morandini described it as "an enormous music video based on visual shock, jam-packed with music, with some monumental sets and elaborate editing. A true festival of kitsch also on an ideological level". According to Paolo Mereghetti the film, "a personal reading of Christianity in musicals", was "a personal delusion of omnipotence", "a mock-apocalyptic madness that is just able to list the worst clichés of indifference".