About
Drawing on Buddhist history to weave a metaphor about the tragedy of Tibetans in exile, Little Buddha is Bernardo Bertolucci’s stunning follow-up to The Sheltering Sky.
Little Buddha is the third film in Bertolucci’s “Eastern Trilogy,” combining the director’s perspective with Buddhist philosophy. Through two parallel narrative lines—Shakyamuni and Siddhartha, a holy monk far from the world and a young boy growing up in Seattle—the film completes a journey of different paths leading to the same destination.
Synopsis
In this religious tour-de-force, a Buddhist monk, Lama Norbu (Ying Ruocheng), believes that a 10-year-old American boy, Jesse (Alex Wiesendanger), is the reincarnation of his spiritual teacher, Lama Dorje.
Jesse’s father, Dean (Chris Isaak), and mother, Lisa (Bridget Fonda), are skeptical, but following his business partner’s suicide, a transformed Dean relents and allows his son to travel to Bhutan. However, there are two other children whom the monk thinks may also be the reincarnation of Lama Dorje.
Featuring Keanu Reeves as Siddhartha.
“A gorgeous, grandly presumptuous spectacle that really deserves to be seen… A crazily mesmerizing pop artifact.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times
Film Information
- Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
- Cast: Keanu Reeves, Bridget Fonda, Chris Isaak
- Duration: 140 minutes
- Language: English
- IMDB: imdb.com/title/tt0107426
Part of Roxie’s “A Keanu Summer” series.
Co-presented by Roxie Theater, San Francisco.