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In Little Buddha the goals are initially independent: Lama Norbu aims to find the
Dalai Lama's reincarnation, whereas Dean aims to find a different approach to life. The
narrative remains uncomplicated through the absence of 'process-oriented' elements, (Grodal
1997: 119) but the expected outcome is delayed by the revelation that, besides Jesse, there are
two other individuals who are possible reincarnations of the Dalai Lama. The development is
designed to create suspense and force viewers to re-orient their hypothesis-making.
Bertolucci's tendency to manipulate viewers' narrative expectations is reaffirmed by Little
Buddha which ultimately confounds the expected outcome by introducing the final twist of
none of the youngsters actually being the definitive reincarnation of Tibet's spiritual leader.
The extended narration of the gratifying journey in India takes on a paratelic mode that
temporarily sidelines the two telic narrations, diverting the viewer's attention to the non goal-
directed aspects of the narrative segment, which are intended to induce reflections on non
Western-centred ideas of life.
By contrast the narration of Siddhartha's life is connoted by a dreamlike and
mythological quality designed to situate viewers in a passive position, in order to achieve the
maximum affective impact. In this narrative strand, elements of the mise-en-scene signal to
viewers that they are transcending reality, thus facilitating the passage from one mode of
engagement to the other. They include a past-tense voiceover narration, changes in the colour
scheme, overexposed lighting, and theatrical costumes and make-up. These are the main
elements that enable viewers to determine a scene's reality status, its deviation from normal
perception, and its perceptual intensity (Grodal 1997: 30-31). The past tense voiceover shifts
the narration away from the vividness of the present, and the 'deviation from normal
perception' that alters the viewing experience in Little Buddha stems from a vibrant golden
tone that characterizes an exotic and long gone world. This colour scheme endows the
aestheticized images with an unreal quality, which is further emphasized by a perceptual
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