LOOKING FOR JESUS (CERCASI GESU)

Italy, 1982, 85 minutes, Colour.
Fernando Rey, Maria Schneider.
Directed by Luigi Comencini.

Looking for Jesus is a whimsical Italian comedy - with some serious undertones. It focuses on a young man emerging from an asylum, being picked up as a hitch-hiker by a `modern' priest, resembling Jesus and fulfilling all the marketing research for what an image of Jesus should look like in the contemporary world. He is put under contract for photographs illustrating a life of Jesus. However, he also acts in the manner of Jesus in encountering a range of people including a drug-addicted mother, a terrorist with a gun, her aristocratic family. He also interacts with the worldly committee who are promoting the life of Jesus. He is also given some witty lines in his critique of commercialism and personalities.

The film is quite enjoyable as a comedy, enjoyable in its look at a contemporary interpretation of Jesus present in the modern world. With the focus on the character emerging from an asylum and appearing as the Jesus-figure, it is very similar to Ben Lewin's episode's with Jeff Goldblum in The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish (based on a French short story by Marcel Ayme).

1.Entertaining Italian comedy, whimsical, serious point about religion?

2.The Italian settings, Rome? The highway? Affluent homes? The musical score?

3.The plausibility of the plot? The official church people? The plans for the life of Jesus? Meeting the Jesus character?

4.The modern priest, on the road, hitch-hikers? Picking up Giovanni, Francesca? His bright idea, the audition and the photos? The identikit for the contemporary Jesus? The publication of the books? His persuasiveness with Giovanni? Controlling the press conference? Controlling the contracts and the money? Serious - with commercial worldliness?

5.Giovanni, in the asylum? On the road, getting a lift for Francesca? His pleasant manner, talking? The audition, his being photographed as Jesus - the make-up, the photo sessions? The million dollars? The press conference - and his not being able to speak? His growing cool on the idea? The group able to persuade him? His ability to read their characters? The woman with the baby, the drugs? Taking her home? Her sexual encounter with him? Francesca, the gun, going to see her mother and the family? Shooting the gun at the would-be arsonists? The discussions with the meeting, playing with the kids? Changing his mind? The happy ending - and his being taken to a different asylum?

6.The staff, the various types? The priests and the nuns, the modern plant, communication of religion? Money-making? Giovanni reading their characters? Their ploys, the meetings, press conferences, commercial? The US Presidential media kit? Giovanni's piano response to the press conference.

7.The world of problems, the girl with her baby, abandoning the child, using the money for drugs? Francesca, the gun, the set-up, for the murder of the professor? Her not being able to do it, the police coming to Giovanni, the interrogations?

8.The religious themes, the Gospel message, the commercialising of Jesus, the print media, photographs? Giovanni as living out the Gospel message of Jesus?