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Amos Lassen wrote on 12/20/2011:

”Johan’ was originally made in 1976 and is both surreal and erotic. It was only briefly seen due to its overt gay activity but times are different now and we must bbe grateful to WaterBearer films for allowing us to finally be able to see it. Basically it is about a novice filmmaker searching for an actor to portray his seductive and enigmatic jailed lover in this surreal and sexually explicit film from the ‘70s.
This bizarre meta-story from French filmmaker Philippe Valois, is very difficult to follow and one never quite knows who’s who or what’s what. Even if you lose the narrative thread, there’s plenty of lush footage of beautiful men in various states of undress doing everything from dancing to playing cards to making sweet, humpy love to each other. Set in Paris, the plot concerns a filmmaker trying to make a movie about his erstwhile lover, Johan, who is “the kind of man you see once and never forget.” However, none of the actors can quite get it right. The filmmaker can’t even manage to cast himself, because two other men portray him during the course of the film. As unhinged as the ‘70s gay scene itself, “Johan” is a dizzying portrait of gay youth in all its enthralling and often narcissistic glory. We see gay cruising in public gardens, strange encounters with doting mothers, wild dance performances in and out of drag and peeks into that strange and wonderful relationship gay men have with straight women. All this plus forehead tattoos and bell-bottoms make Johan a kitchen-sink affair that is sure to tease, titillate and astound the viewer. This is one you do not want to miss.