Babies, Running Time: 79 Minutes, In Theaters: May 7, 2010
Babies! Eighty glorious minutes of babies. That is French filmmaker Thomas Balmès’ new documentary in a nutshell. It is actually eighty glorious minutes of four babies, as Balmès and his camera crew follow Ponijao, from Opuwo, Namibia; Bayarjargal, from Bayanchanmani, Mongolia; Mari, from Tokyo; and Hattie, from San Francisco, for the first year of their lives, from first breaths to first steps.
Balmès believes that babies, like good bourbon, are best served neat. After each infant is introduced to the audience in a caption that gives his or her name and location, the film has no other captions, no voice-over narration, and no interviews with parents or experts. The only accompaniment to the images and sounds captured by the filmmakers is Bruno Culais’ lighthearted score. The movie depends on (and simultaneously reminds viewers of) the fact that babies are delightful, adorable, oh so lovable, and, of course, funny. And the babies do not disappoint. There are beautiful shots of wrinkly newborn feet, first smiles of recognition, wide-eyed wonder on encountering a pet cat (or rooster) for the first time, and baby mouths voicing cackles of surprise and delight.
The film moves back and forth among the four babies to highlight the similarities and differences in their experiences. In one sequence the film cuts back and forth between Bayar, sitting alone in a tent, tethered to a bedpost, working assiduously to grasp a roll of toilet paper just out of his reach, and Mari, sitting alone in her playroom, trying to stack rings on a pole. Bayar squeals with delight as he finally gets his hands on (and teeth into) the toilet paper. Mari wails with frustration and collapses to the ground in a heap of utter despair when her hand refuses to do just what she wants it to. The laid-back parenting style of Ponijao’s mother, who often leaves the little girl in the custody of one of her eight siblings and laughingly watches as Ponijao and a dog swap spit, is contrasted with that of Hattie’s parents, who are shown reading a book called Becoming the Parent You Wanted to Be.
With no commentary, Balmès manages to convey his wry amusement with Hattie’s thoroughly San Franatic parents. After Hattie whacks her mother across the face, her mom says (softly, and with a big smile), “Hattie!” She then pulls a picture book called No Hitting from a bookshelf and asks her daughter, in the same sweet tone, “Remember this one?” In another scene, Hattie makes a break for the exit at a baby yoga class while her father sits cross-legged in a circle with other parents, chanting “The earth is our mother.”
Much of the film is shot at the babies’ eye level (often, parents are cut off at the knee or the neck) to show how the babies experience their surroundings. In one segment the camera follows Mari at stroller level as she is wheeled through a toy store. Her head swivels constantly as she tries to take in all the colorfully packaged toys. In another segment we see Hattie in the shower with her father, her eyes the size of saucers, enthralled by the showerhead. The overall effect is to illustrate just how much babies notice that the rest of us miss. Mr. Balmès also seems to favor shots in which the babies are alone or at least unobserved. At one point he discovers Hattie sitting in a swing. As her mother stands at a sink with her back to the baby, Hattie crouches and springs up. With arms and legs extended, she looks like a five-pointed star bouncing up and down. The effect, once again, is to emphasize how much we adults miss. A year, really, is such a short time. Before we know it, all four babies are taking their first triumphant steps, and the credits are rolling.
As much as I enjoyed the film (and laughed and “a-w-w-w-ed” with the rest of the audience), I do wonder what it says about us that we now go to the movies to experience babies. Do fewer people today have the daily interactions with babies that people had in previous generations? This seems possible; as people live more insular lives and move away from their families, they are less likely to know a baby if they do not have one of their own. Or is this an indication, perhaps, of how much we depend on technology to mediate and classify and generally experience our human experiences? (Many of us, for example, enjoy an evening out by looking at pictures we have just taken of that evening out.)
But, as I reflected on these questions, Bayar crawled into the cow pasture, and Ponijao started to dance on her unsteady, chubby legs as her mother clapped and sang, and, once again, I was utterly entranced by beautiful Babies.
May 7th, 2010 | 2:39 pm
I think what is missed in families where the parents stop having children at one to three is in the older children’s direct experience of babies AND the younger children’s direct experience of non-peer group older kids that they can depend on. Our oldest will go to college next year and he’s able to remember the infancy of children #4 to #8. He good-naturedly gripes about them, of course, but he’s very good with them and they love him.
May 7th, 2010 | 3:27 pm
Perhaps we can never get enough of something as beautiful as babies.
May 7th, 2010 | 4:19 pm
Whether this is good science or not I just enjoy watching these babies making important decisions :-)
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/05/04/magazine/1247467772000/can-babies-tell-right-from-wrong.html
May 7th, 2010 | 5:28 pm
Every 30-second video I’ve watched on YouTube of a baby giggling, eating, babbling, etc. then hit “refresh” to watch again and again has whet my appetite for this movie!
If anyone did forget how hilarious and cute babies are, surely they remembered as soon as they watched a baby dancing in a kitchen, sobbing in a backseat, doing something utterly ordinary… and felt themselves become overwhelmed by a gush of tenderness.
May 7th, 2010 | 7:52 pm
I do hope this movie makes many people consider again the supreme gift that a child is.
That said, with one baby nearly a year old and another well on the way (with many more hopefully coming!) I think I’ll bow out of a personal viewing. Babies don’t strike me as particularly cute or fun or cuddly…I’m much more interested in the children and adults that they’ll become. Babies are the purgatory that parents suffer to have a good, strong, large family!
May 7th, 2010 | 11:00 pm
I wonder what effect it could have on people if each baby’s story began in utero. Oh, well, anything that encourages a greater love of babies is a lovely thing.
May 8th, 2010 | 8:46 am
Babies? Meh…
Film a documentary about exotic, interesting brunette women and I’ll watch.
May 8th, 2010 | 12:16 pm
Brandon — One thing I learned to appreciate via multiple children was how absolutely, from birth, they *are* the people they’ll become. With one child, you think, “Oh, that’s how babies are.” What subsequent children teach you is that how each one is is how *that person* is — which is remarkable to look back on, especially as they do grow into “kid-hood” and adolescence.
I am continually astounded at how much the person my 16-year-old is today is of a piece with the person I first glimpsed — one furious eye in a fold of blanket — being borne out of the room while I had to stay behind and be sewn back up again. The child who terrified everyone by refusing to cry and pinken up (I think my husband still has nightmares about that gray baby), and whom we could never leave with a sitter without screaming trauma, and who was the kind of toddler who wouldn’t wear socks because the seams bothered her so much, is . . . well, pretty darn strong-minded today, in mostly quite admirable ways. (and she does now wear socks — maturity is a wonderful thing!)
I used to say to myself, when life with her infant self got rough, that she was going to be a terrific adult; already she’s a very good teenager, and a person whose company I actively enjoy.
And now that she’s got one foot out the door, even though we have more children who’ll be at home for years longer, oh how I wish I could live that babyhood again, and realize what a gift it was . . .
May 8th, 2010 | 2:28 pm
Sally–very true and beautifully put. Thanks.
May 9th, 2010 | 1:16 am
“you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you just kissed $9.50 goodbye”. Everyone agrees – Babies are adorable. I think most people who see this movie will also agree – the movie: “Babies” is awful. It isn’t entertaining, not because the babies aren’t cute…it’s the other stuff, like…(where do I begin?)…I really don’t want to see a woman clean baby poop off her knee by using a old corn cob. Yuck! And WHY, if the film maker want’s to show “average babies” from different countries, Why did they pick some new-age, mother-earth-loving San Francisco couple – “naked mom in the hot tub with the baby” (wait…was this Hot tub time machine or babies??) whose idea of discipline is, after she gets slapped by the child, the mom pulls out the book “no slapping”. And they really are mother-earth-lovers because they show them at day care singing “mother earth will take care of me….”. AAAHHHHHhh!!!! Hey filmmakers…First rule of filmmaking – make it entertaining! Stay Away!!
May 9th, 2010 | 6:59 pm
French filmmaker Thomas Balmès magically captured the ‘universality constant’ of these four babies from four totally different cultures. It is fantastic to see uninterrupted natural gross motor development in most of the scenes be taken seriously and honored. There were a couple scenes where the baby was propped before they could do it on their own. I recommend seeing this movie again with ‘new eyes’. Look at the babies eyes, their reactions and responses to their parents and environment to see how similar all babies discover, by mouthing, comparing, learn and grow when given the chance. Ask yourself in each of the scenes does the parent think their baby know best and that they take their clues from their baby like when to observe, when to intervene and how respectful are their parents being. Respect is the key to raising a self-confident baby no matter which culture . I think one sees that money, products, and gadgets aren’t necessarily the answer for this to happen. I would like future movie goers to be respectful as well and keep their comments to themselves. These babies are not objects and although cute, notice how competent they are, how they take initiative, hitting stones, peeling the banana, solving problems, taking their first steps on their own, falling down and getting up again, putting up with siblings, pets, livestock. In some of the scenes I felt the animals intuitively were very tolerant and most understanding. Hopefully if you are working with babies, are a parent, older sibling or grandparent,this film gives you an opportunity to ask yourself could you be doing better? What is really important? I had the honor of studying with the Late Magda Gerber, internationally known infant specialist. And I love her quote to “Pay Attention”
May 10th, 2010 | 1:01 pm
[...] Duke reviews Babies, which looks like a fascinating documentary tracing the first year of four babies in four [...]
May 12th, 2010 | 9:51 am
Please delete first response and replace it with the one below after you review it. Thank you. And my website is http:://falcon.fsc.edu/dsuskind/
A KEY TO UNDERSTANDING A CHILD’S UNFOLDING NEED FOR INDEPENDENCE: IMPLICATION OF NOT RUSHING AN INFANT’S NATURAL PATH FROM EARLY INFANCY TO STANDING TODDLERHOOD IS SEEN THROUGH OUT ‘BABIES’
French filmmaker Thomas Balmès magically captured the ‘universality constant’ of these four babies from four totally different cultures. It is fascinating to see uninterrupted natural gross motor development be taken seriously and honored. There was a scene where the baby was propped before she could do it on her own. Why are we rushing? Instead let’s honor by paying attention to what the infant can do while on his back, such as choosing which object to pick up, bring it to his mouth and mouth it. Please take the time to observe and respect the series of skills and complexity in this movie. The infant had to make a decsion on the object he wanted, used his eye-hand coordination to pick it up to actually balancing the object to his mouth.
I recommend seeing this movie again with ‘new eyes’. Look at the babies eyes, their reactions and responses to their parents and environment to see how similar all babies discover, by mouthing, comparing, learning and growing when given the chance. Ask yourself in each of the scenes, “Does the parents think their babies know best and that they take their clues from their babies like when to observe, when to intervene and how respectful are their parents are being. Respect is the key to raising a self-confident baby no matter which culture . I think one sees that money, products, and gadgets aren’t necessarily the answer for this to happen. I would like future movie goers to be respectful as well and keep their comments to themselves. These babies are not objects and although cute, notice how competent they are, how they take initiative, hitting stones, peeling the banana, solving problems, crawling, taking their first steps on their own, falling down and getting up again, putting up with siblings, pets, livestock. In some of the scenes I felt the animals intuitively were tolerant and most understanding. Hopefully if you are working with babies, are a parent, older sibling or grandparent,this film gives you an opportunity to ask yourself could you be doing better? What is really important? I had the honor of studying with the late Magda Gerber, internationally known infant specialist. And I love her quotes such as to “Pay Attention”, “Learning to fall, getting up again and moving on is the best preparation for life.”and “Children don’t play because they learn; they play because they play.”
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