Published by: World Tibet Network News Saturday, December 27, 1997

Friday December 26 12:19 PM EST

By Christopher Michaud

NEW YORK (Reuters) - At first glance Martin Scorsese, whose films delve into some of man's most violent impulses, might seem an odd choice to direct an epic biography of the Dalai Lama, but he doesn't see it that way. "Instead of Mafia figures, you have Mao's dynasty," he says of "Kundun," a sweeping look at the early years of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, from his "discovery" as a 2-year-old boy in 1937 to his exile in 1959 after the Chinese Communists occupied Tibet.

There are no Western actors in the film, which opened Christmas Day in limited release. Most of the cast were not professional actors, including several monks. Small children play the lead role for nearly half of the film, and there is not a dark city street or an Italian in sight. The Dalai Lama worked closely with the filmmakers and has given "Kundun" his blessing. "My main connection with this picture was a basically a religious one," said Scorsese, director of such bloody pictures as "Casino," "Goodfellas" and "Raging Bull."

"Even though I make films about the secular world in which I grew up, religion has always been a part of those films," he told Reuters. "It's the same conflict in "Mean Streets" as in this film -- how to live life in a spiritual way while you're in the outside world. In Tibet now, they're in the outside world." DEALING WITH THE SPIRITUAL LIFE "And I wanted to keep it disciplined. I did not want to make a picture that's a historical epic where you see battle scenes and things like that. I really wanted to deal with the spiritual life of this human being," added Scorsese, a bundle of kinetic energy who happily rattles on for 20 minutes in answer to a question and often anticipates the next one before it is asked. The main difference in making "Kundun," the acclaimed director said, was that he was able to maintain a more objective distance from the subject.

Scorsese, who described himself as a "somewhat lapsed, somewhat practicing" Catholic, said he was "too wrapped up in the trappings of Catholicism and Christianity" to have made a really spiritual film with his highly controversial "The Last Temptation of Christ," a project on which he said he lost his focus and discipline. That 1988 film, with its depiction of Jesus as vulnerable, conflicted and sensual, was subjected to boycotts and protests by religious activists. "Kundun" is not likely to upset anyone, except the Chinesm that world. But here I didn't have that. Here you could get right down to the heart of it, and the heart is compassion, love, kindness and tolerance," the director said. "Tolerance for the way other people live and what they believe. That's the biggest thing to learn."

CATHOLIC CHURCH 'SHOULD BE MORE LIBERAL' Scorsese had some strong words for his own church on those issues. "I think it has to be more liberal. There's no such thing as condemning people's lifestyles, no such thing. If they're created by God in this manner, then they are valid as human beings, and you cannot, as some archbishops and some cardinals have said, condemn them," he said. "There's no way. God won't do it, why should you? This is what's important, this is about the compassion and the love the church should be giving out to every person in the street. The Dalai Lama, the way he's handled the situation, he's the real thing in terms of really living out a religious conviction of nonviolence and pacifism, to the extent where the country changes irrevocably." Scorsese said the appeal of "Kundun" for him was the "chance to make something that was more the essence of religion, the essence of a spiritual life." Working with monks, other nonactors and children helped him do this. "I'd walk on the set, talkin

g like I am now, rat-a-tat, and they'd be all calm, standing there, and that was the mood! I didn't have to create it, they got it."

The part of the Dalai Lama was played by four people, from the 2-year-old boy to the 24-year-old exile. The toddler was a particular challenge for Scorsese, more accustomed to working with actors such as Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel. "I didn't get that performance from the 2-year-old," he readily admitted of the film's magically charming early sequences. "That was two cameras, the director of photography, the assistant director and his crew, the mother, the nanny and my assistant." 'WHEN HE DIDN'T WANT TO PLAY, THAT WAS IT' Scorsese said they would tell the boy "'Look here,' then they'd hold a little toy airplane or show him certain things to get a look on his face. It took 10 days of shooting ... he had energy in spurts, and when he didn't want to play with us any more, that was it. He's a 2-year-old kid ... so we'd shoot around him. But every hour we had to figure out a way to amuse him to see if we could get a look or a reaction."

Another benefit of using nonprofessionals was the budget -- the film came in at around $28 million, Scorsese said, far less than most studio productions, particularly one shot in such far-flung locations as Morocco and with such careful attention to authentic detail in costumes, sets and mood. Scorsese sees -- and fears -- a growing gap between big-budget mainstream films and the independent cinema. "I sort of fall somewhere in-between. I'm really concerned about the edging out of the really original films in the middle-budget range. A lot of the ones being made now go for the easy sentiment so they'll at least have a certain kind of audience, but it makes you take less chances, and there are less interesting films coming out," he said. "The independent cinema is keeping the real spirit alive. It proves that if you want to make a film badly enough and strongly enough you're going to do it. ... That's great, that's spirit. Without Robert Redford and Sundance (Redford's film institute and festival) I think we'

d be in very bad shape."