Film: Babies
Release date: 28th March 2011
Certificate: U
Running time: 76 mins
Director: Thomas Balmès
Starring: N/a
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD
Country: France
Thomas Balmès bores and enthrals in his latest documentary about babies – and it’s as much an adventure/comedy to boot. Described by some as “tedious” and “shallow,” has the French director’s affinity for the cute and cuddly got the better of him?
The documentary follows the lives of four babies and their mothers from birth to one year on. Baby Ponijao is a Namibian girl within the Himba tribe. They live in huts away from any modern community, out of choice, and it is the women who cook and look after the children while the father, who is never seen in the film, goes about his business in the bush.
Bayar is a Mongolian baby who lives with his traditional family in a nomadic yurt. They are surrounded by grass hills and open plateaus and keep cattle and horses, as well as other animals.
Mari is a Japanese baby living in the city with her mother and father in a small apartment. They are the ‘futuristic’ family with lots of computers and modern technology around them.
Finally, there is Hattie, an American baby girl who lives in San Francisco with her parents. They are the ‘normal’ family who represent the modern western family today.
The film focuses on the babies’ adventures as they grow up, and contrasts the way in which they experience them within different cultures. With no narration, the format is literally a fly-on-the-wall documentary charting the babies’ lives…
The ‘wonder’ of babies is universal, and the makers of Babies (the film) know how to sell it. They’ve bottled it up in four different flavours, with four photographically perfect labels, and injected it with the toxic effect of laughter.
The best description of the film is Thomas Balmès who pitched the project as “a wildlife documentary about human babies.” If you don’t have endurance for either wildlife programmes or babies, then this documentary won’t be your cup of tea. The length of it just about holds attention for the rest of viewers, although five minutes longer would have tested patience, even of those indulgent mothers.
It’s clear the makers of the documentary wanted to create something that applied to different cultures under a universal subject. The problem they might have had was the ability for such subject matter to become boring and one-dimensional; but the omission of any commentary or narrative gives the viewer a chance to come to their own assumptions. With the occasional companion of recurring ditty-themed music, only the gurgling of babies and nonsense baby-talk of mothers guide us through what’s happening on screen.
The cinematography is amazingly impressive. It’s like looking through a flip-book of national geographic photographs. But it isn’t just the landscape and colours that the makers have got right - nearly every scene is compositionally precise. There’s a shot in Namibia of two mothers suckling babies on their lap with one hand, while the other hand grabs food from a bucket between them - their toes are just visible in the foreground stretched out in front of them. There is almost perfect symmetry on the screen, and yet it’s all natural, none of the material is provoked. The effort and time spent on the filming pays off immensely.
Deliberately contrasting scenes between the cultures of ‘how to bring up baby’ highlight the main theme: no matter the vast differences between every culture, there are innate similarities between us all. However, at some points, the contrasts seem to perhaps inadvertently delve deeper in to how our different cultures affect a baby’s sensibilities. One notable contrast between Bayar and Mari shows Bayar happy simply playing with a roll of toilet paper. We then see shots of Mari crying in frustration surrounded by numerous gadgets, gizmos and toys.
The idea is that simplicity and a more natural upbringing - closer to nature – is the ideal when it comes to raising a baby, and there’s nothing in the film to say that’s wrong. Indeed, the Namibian mothers seem to be the happiest. In an interview with Thomas Balmès, he revealed the babies that cried the least were Ponijao and Bayar. Mollycoddled Mari and Hattie on the other hand have toys and books thrown at them from day one and cry more - it makes you wonder if the documentary makers are actually making a point here about modern and western upbringings, or whether they’ve stumbled upon a baby rearing revelation!
As far as documentaries go, this should be a classic, although it teeters on lengthy for the subject matter. The universality it achieves in its material will be begot by baby-lovers and those interested in how it’s done in different cultures. Even if you do get bored of the babies, there are always the enthralling landscapes to capture your imagination. However, be sure to approach with the premise – if you don’t like babies: DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM. MI
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