THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 10, 1994 TAG: 9407080110
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 121 lines
REBELLION, ON both a political and sexual level, have been the primary subjects of Bernardo Bertolucci, the most famous Italian director still making films. It comes as something of a surprise, then, that his latest film is a philosophical parable for children, a film that cajoles rather than shocks.
``I've always been an extremist in my life,'' the 53-year-old Bertolucci admitted as he sat for a rare interview. ``In this new film, I take the middle way. `Little Buddha' is the discovery that the middle way can be creative - and still need not be banal.''
``Little Buddha,'' settling in for a long run at the Naro Expanded Cinema in Norfolk, has one of the year's most unusual casts: Keanu Reeves (currently starring in the megahit ``Speed'') as a prince who gives up all wealth for Buddhism; Ying Ruocheng, a famous Chinese actor and former William and Mary professor, as a wise Lama; and Bridget Fonda and rocker Chris Isaak as the Seattle parents of a 9-year-boy who is believed to be the reincarnation of an important Buddhist lama.
The film was photographed in Seattle, India and the remote Himalayan province of Bhutan.
The plot deals with what happens when the American boy travels to the Himalayas where tests will determine if he was the famous Buddhist lama in an earlier life.
``I do not have the knowledge to be able to say that I am a Buddhist,'' the famed director said. ``I am fascinated by Buddhism, though. Many people in the West perceive it only as a minimal, self-renouncing lifestyle. It is more. I have learned, through the readings, that man, 500 years before Jesus Christ, was able to imagine a philosophy such as this. Buddhism is more a philosophy than a religion. It is the idea that man has to find God within himself. It is terribly modern. It is revolutionary. In a way, `Little Buddha' is my most revolutionary film.''
The son of a famous Italian poet and movie critic, Bertolucci was a published poet at age 12. He quit college to become Pier Paolo Pasolini's assistant director. His first masterpiece came with 1970's ``The Conformist.'' It and ``1900'' (which starred Robert DeNiro, Donald Sutherland and Burt Lancaster) dealt with politics and reflected his liking for pure Marxist Communism.
``I was always idealistic, but I felt it was right when the Soviet Union was dissolved,'' he said. ``There was too much suffering among the people. The system never existed in a way that the dream did.''
``1900,'' a history of socialism in Italy for 70 years, was 5 1/2-hours-long. Only a cut version was shown in the United States.
His 1972 film ``The Last Tango in Paris'' drew attention because of its sexual explicitness and that Marlon Brando was its leading man. ``It was accepted well here in the United States, but I was charged with `obscenity' in Italy and sentenced to three months in jail - suspended. I was not allowed to vote, though, for three years. I became something of a martyr for creative freedom.''
With ``The Last Emperor,'' he won the best director Oscar and, as he puts it, ``got vaccinated on how to handle large crowds. In the Forbidden City, I had hundreds of barbers, just to shave the heads of the extras. I learned. It was very Italian in that it was very melodramatic, like an opera. Puccini went to Japan for `Madama Butterfly.' I went to China for `The Last Emperor.' ''
The knowledge was put to practice in ``Little Buddha,'' which has huge crowd scenes, particularly when Keanu Reeves, as Prince Siddhartha, emerges from his gates to meet the throngs. The movie is a shocking change of pace for a man who has formerly been concerned with huge historical and political tapestries. Here, the search is for simplicity as seen through the eyes of a child.
``I learned from talking to children that the modern child is very different from when I was a child,'' he said. ``The modern child is very afraid of death and, consequently, the idea of reincarnation makes them very happy. Children have seen images of death on television - and they know about violence all around them. They know about guns. The ideas of Buddhism are very simple, and very accessible to them. Children from ages 7 to 14 have had an amazing reaction to it.''
Bertolucci, who was in New York for the American premiere of ``Little Buddha,'' commutes between England and Italy.
``I was very nervous because this is the first time I have ever filmed an American family,'' he said. ``I know how foreign directors can be punished for making mistakes in filming locales like Seattle. But it felt well. A family is a family - wherever.''
After an extensive search, he found the boy actor for the central role in the playground of a New York City public school. Alex Wiesendanger, who was 9 at the time of filming, is now 11, and accompanied his director to the American premiere. Young Alex said he liked the travel to India and Bhutan but didn't like the 10-year-old Indian girl who co-starred with him in the film.
``She was very snooty. I didn't get along with her,'' he said, flatly.
He also doesn't like rival kid star Macauley Culkin with whom he appeared, as a part of the ensemble, in ``The Nutcracker.''
``He's very stuck up,'' he said.
Young Alex also doesn't like his younger brother Luke, ``whom I beat up when I can get away with it.'' Luke is appearing as one of the children who are killed in each Broadway performance of the tragedy ``Medea,'' starring Tony winner Diana Rigg. ``I go to see it, just to see him get slaughtered,'' the star of ``Little Buddha'' confided.
Bertolucci, an impeccably mannered man, chuckled at the comments of his little leading man, and added, later, that directing a child actor was no real hassle.
``You simply wait,'' he said. ``Sooner or later, they will do something wonderful for the camera.''
He cast Reeves in the role of an Indian prince after viewing the actor's performance in ``My Own Private Idaho.'' Most Hollywood onlookers thought the casting was, at best, a stretch. Bertolucci, though, admitted that he has never seen ``Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure'' and didn't understand the snickering he got about his unlikely choice.
``I had tried to cast an actor from India in the role, but I couldn't find anyone. I was impressed by the look of innocence in Keanu - shining innocence. He is 26 years old and yet he has the look of total simplicity about him. He committed himself entirely to the role. . . .''
``To Buddhists,'' the famed director said, ``the highest form of intelligence is compassion. In our society, we want to emerge from the masses and put ourselves on a pedestal. In the East, I've seen people totally happy and fulfilled because they were in harmony with the masses. It's different. The movie is very simple, and very entertaining. It doesn't preach, but this is there. It is a reminder that the world doesn't have a monoculture, but a multiculture - and that diversity is beautiful.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Alex Wiesendanger, center, stars in Bernardo Bertolucci's ``Little
Buddha.''
by CNB