Mr. Schabus has included visual and musical allusions to the film "The Third Man," but they seem less than urgently relevant.

Visits to several rehearsals last week revealed that Mr. Loquasto's web of visual allusion is in fact spun much, much wider.

There are many programmed and visual allusions throughout Star-Child.

In the opening scene set in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus crushes a serpent's head in direct visual allusion to Genesis 3:15.

However, Mr. Seltzer's insistence on recalling other films both through Linda, who is a big movie fan, and through visual allusions almost never works to his advantage.

It was filled with visual allusions to the political situation and it was expressed through Grotowski's very physical form of acting.

"We were still putting on plays with political, visual allusions and society was far ahead of us," the director said.

Before them sprawled London, old and new, a visual allusion, said the film's director, Nigel Finch, to the changing lives of the characters.

The film included visual allusions to propaganda films such as Why We Fight, Triumph of the Will, and wartime newsreels.