Little Buddha (1993)

Director:

Bernardo Bertolucci

Writers (WGA):

Bernardo Bertolucci (story)
Rudy Wurlitzer (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

25 May 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Lama Norbu comes to Seattle in search of the reincarnation of his dead teacher, Lama Dorje. His search leads him to young Jesse Conrad...

Plot Keywords:

Reincarnation | Enlightenment | Buddhist | Nonlinear Timeline | Kicked In Butt

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Keanu Reeves	...	Siddhartha
Ruocheng Ying	...	Lama Norbu (as Ying Ruocheng)
Chris Isaak	...	Dean Conrad
Bridget Fonda	...	Lisa Conrad
Alex Wiesendanger	...	Jesse Conrad
Raju Lal	...	Raju
Greishma Makar Singh	...	Gita
Sogyal Rinpoche	...	Kenpo Tenzin
Ven. Khyongla Rato Rinpoche	...	Abbot
Ven. Geshe Tsultim Gyelsen	...	Lama Dorje
Jo Champa	...	Maria
Jigme Kunsang	...	Champa
Thubtem Jampa	...	Punzo
Surekha Sikri	...	Sonali
T.K. Lama	...	Sanjay

Also Known As:

Little Buddha (France)
Piccolo Buddha (Italy)

Runtime:

123 min | Australia:141 min

Country:

Italy | France | Liechtenstein | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby Digital (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL | Iceland:L | South Korea:All | Argentina:Atp | Finland:K-8 | France:U | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG | Singapore:PG | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Bhutan

Company:

CiBy 2000

Trivia:

The film is dedicated to Francis Bouygues, a French industrialist who was to produce this film before he died in 1993.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Raju play with the GameBoy you can hear that he is playing Tetris. But if you watch closely you can see that it is not turned on at all.

Quotes:

Jesse Conrad: Were you sleeping lama?
Lama Norbu: No, I was meditating.
Jesse Conrad: What's meditating?
Lama Norbu: It is being totally quiet and relaxed, separating yourself from everything around you, setting your mind free like a bird, and you can then see your thoughts as if they were passing clouds
[looks out the window of a flying plane]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Matrix (1999)

Nothing wrong with slow.

I certainly disagree with the commentary that calls this movie plotless. I agree that it's slow, but what's wrong with slow? Roger Ebert put the movie down by calling it 'Buddhist Sunday School.' True, the Buddha parts are simplistic, but then so is the original Buddha story. Slow, thoughtful, peaceful, subtly stimulating, and with a plot to end all plots-- the one-ness of all individuality. I much prefer this to the more recent Kundun, which tries to tell essentially the same story. In fact, Scorsese rips this movie off dreadfully, even to the same wiping out of the sand pattern at the end.