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According to press reports, John Arnold is right that *Visions* is based on St Theresa of Avila, and it is unsurprising that John (or anyone else in this country, for that matter) hasn't seen it -- it's been denied a certificate for something like seven years -- and I don't think anyone has seen it other than the director's friends at Central St Martins or wherever he was. The film (and attendant controversy) was being used as test case in an attempt to break the both the ludicrous British Board of Film Classification and local council control of film regulation. It didn't work. Pity. The European Court of Human Rights found that there was no way to impose Euro-standards on something like blasphemy, and so the BBFC's case was upheld (much to everyone's surprise, I should think). All this is follows a fine old tradition: the old Corporation of the City of Glasgow banned Monty Python's Life of Brian when it came out, as did an English council that in fact had no cinemas. (and if John wants to see a *really* incompetent and genuinely criminal government, all he needs to do take the Chunnel (if it ever re-opens) to Brussels and watch the Belgian government at work ... for all the Tories' faults, at least they didn't make Fred West a cabinet minister.) jon J. M. B. PORTER Department of History : University of Nottingham University Park : Nottingham : NG7 2RD : England t: + 115 951 3639 f: + 115 951 5948 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%