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Piccolo Buddha /Little Buddha: A Journey into the Ethical through the Marvellous
After The Last Emperor and The Sheltering Sky, which were both based on literary works,
Piccolo Buddha/Little Buddha (1993) marked Bertolucci's return to developing and writing
his films' scripts. This detail, together with a contemporary critical observation that
recognized the value of the film's philosophical basis, (Grazzini 1999: 111-112) has
prompted the following chapter to venture beyond the assumption that it centres on a
simplistic opposition between West and East, in terms of unhappiness versus happiness in
personal and societal contexts (Niogret 1999: 111). Hence, I will explore two themes in the
film, the first represented by a mental journey into the essence of ethics, during which the
West/East opposition becomes a more complex issue. This emerges from the notion that, far
from denying the value of Western culture, the film warns against the distortion generated by
its self-centredness.
The second of the film's cornerstones is based on a visual journey during which its
opulent visuals appear motivated not so much by Bertolucci's interest in making a
'sumptuous work', (Socci, 1996: 83) but by an expression of his own personality through the
creation of an aesthetic experience that evokes the emotional impact of wonder and
amazement upon humanity and the nurturing of the human imagination. This archetypal
sensation, the film implies, is dying out nowadays as a consequence of the pragmatism that
dominates Western society. To clarify the nature of the film s journey theme, this chapter will
analyse the two segments which compose the film, these relating to the depiction of the
Buddha/Prince Siddhartha's life within the story of a young boy assumed to be the
reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. As a consequence, it will be indicated how the viewer's
cognitive and affective engagement is split between these two segments as they require
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