On this viewing - I've seen the film several times - I came to suspect that the subject matter is less the occult imagery and the quest for immortality and more the persistent distractions of the crude, myopic crowds. The mobs of children that appear more than once; the soldiers, their floozy consorts and the tourists photographing them; the Roman guards guzzling booze and manufacturing salable Christs; the giggling prostitutes; the petty squabblers at the base of the tower; the…