RECOMMENDED
(1979-2005) Writer-director Graham Coleman’s “Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy,” beautifully photographed by David Lascelles, is a restored, re-edited version of their four-hour 1979 edition, with some additional footage. Working after the style of Robert Flaherty (“Nanook of the North”) and Frederick Wiseman (“Titicut Follies”), the filmmakers choose to step back and observe rituals and landscape, an attempt to illuminate through long takes, rather than illustrate rituals of Buddhism through narration. Coleman notes Kenji Mizoguchi as an influence, and in the most memorable passages, there is a neatly framed reserve that honors that comparison. Glimpses of the young Dalai Lama charm; other passages are sleepily narcotic. 134m. (Ray Pride)