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of a children's book, takes on a precise meaning in terms of the way it represents Bertolucci's
attempt to induce viewers to adopt the same docile attitude towards the marvellous that
typifies childhood. In the film's structure, therefore, Jesse represents a second 'engaging
character' with the task of embodying the metaphorical door through which viewers enter the
film's imaginative segment, and then the medium through which they might cross the
boundary between reality and imagination when the mise-en-scene slowly merges the two
narrative segments by having the children from the film's present day narrative continuum
(their position mirroring the viewer's position) become physically involved in Siddhartha's
astonishing tale. Consequently, the disappearing demarcation line between the two narratives
ensures that the sense of wonder and spiritual awareness elicited by Siddhartha's narrative
eventually pervades the film's contemporary realism.
The use of archetypes to engender intellectual inferences; Buddhism, Greek mythology
and Christianity
Unlike the whimsical fantasy imagery that appears in mainstream, commercial cinema, Little
Buddha makes use of archetypal imagery designed to stir viewers' most intimate (though
forgotten) desires and needs. An archetype, in fact, involves a deeper emotional experience
through its fundamental, intercultural links to primordial images expressing human wonder
about life and its phenomena. Little Buddha draws on three primary patterns: the child
symbolizing a new beginning that is open to all possibilities; the hero/saviour symbolizing
potential changes in world orders; and the supernatural symbolizing the divine or special
nature of the hero - indicated in the film by trees spontaneously bending towards
Siddhartha's mother to shelter her during the baby's birth and by a cobra that grows to giant
proportions and rears its head to protect Siddhartha from the rain.
The use of archetypes with their resonances might explain the mise-en-scene^
effectiveness in cueing visual amazement as well as intellectual involvement. This is also due
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