Watch Babies For Free

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Just what I expected

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

French documentary filmmaker Thomas Balmès follows the lives of four babies in their first year starting from their births. Ponijao is near Opuwo, Namibia. Bayar is near Bayanchandmani, Mongolia. Mari is in Tokyo, Japan. Hattie is in San Francisco, USA. There is no narration and little talking. When the language is not English, there is no subtitles. This is an eighty minute exceptional home video. It's fascinating to see the differences between the four cultures. Some of vistas are amazing. The babies are cute. The families are endearing sharing a common humanity. The question is how much home video can one endure in one sitting. This may be some of the best but it is still what it is. It's like showing baby pictures. They could be the most amazing cute baby pictures but at some point, one has to stop. I got that stopping feeling after thirty minutes or so.

The name pretty much says it all here, as we follow four newborns from vastly different cultures through the first year of their lives. Without a spot of narration or even so much as a subtitle track for the non-English segments, it's a classic case of a film allowing its viewers to take whatever they want from it. As a relatively new parent myself, I was fascinated by the day-to-days of the two rural babies - one from the dust of west Africa, the other the grassy fields of Mongolia - and how completely alien their surroundings and practices seem from my comfortable perch here in the first world. It's tastefully filmed, with a particular emphasis on artistic framing and long, captivating shots of unsupervised children at play, encountering and discovering their world one step at a time. My young boys absolutely loved it, but at this point they'll watch almost anything with a cute face or two. Nice eye candy with a hint of deeper meaning, but not a show-stopper.

I am a professed baby junkie. Merely seeing a baby or toddler in person or in a picture elates and uplifts my mood and emotions. Therefore, I predicted that I would appreciate and savor the "Babies" DVD I purchased recently. My prediction satisfyingly came true. "Babies" is a contemplative but absorbing celebration of these remarkable beings.The movie is essentially a "What if" stylistic experiment. What if we followed the broad outlines of a wildlife documentary, but with the subject being young human children instead of lions or elephants? What if we select a global approach by focusing on four children (one African, two Asian, and one North American) and compare and contrast their babyhood? What if we improved on the wildlife documentary and eliminated the distracting narration and commentary that purports to understand the subjects' motivations? What if we simply sit and watch the babies do their things and draw our own individual conclusions? It's a daring, risky approach and will not appeal to all cinematic tastes.For example, if you prefer fast-paced, action-oriented documentaries, you probably won't enjoy "Babies". If you prefer deliberate, observant, leisurely paced stories, you will probably be more partial to the story. Of course, if you adore children, you will find paradise. The babies are the Namibian girl Ponijao, the Mongolian boy Bayarjargal, the Tokyo girl Mari, and the San Franciscan girl Hattie. We see all four during the interval from birth to about one year old. We see them interacting with their parents, their siblings, other babies, and their environment. They all exhibit the behaviors we expect from babies: wonderment, curiosity, contentment, frustration, fear, and triumphant satisfaction. We see them grow in experience and independence. Even though they may occasionally face an overzealous sibling, a scary gorilla and tiger, or a boring Native American spirit exhortation, all the babies exhibit spunk, intelligence, perception, and resilience. It's fun, charming, and even emotional to watch them react to something, and sometimes not even react at all as life swirls around them. I simply loved them all, and was relieved and gratified that their parents seemed to do so as well.Of course, the babies' socioeconomic backgrounds run the gamut from the "primitive" savanna to the ultra-modern city, with Bayarjargal's milieu being an unusual hybrid of Mongolian farming steppe and technologically advanced yurt (including a laptop computer and satellite dish). But as other posters have commented, babies really don't care a whit about wealth and possessions. All that matters is that they receive love, support, and guidance, and they certainly do. Also, each baby is allowed a certain amount of freedom to explore his or her surroundings; no parent, when we occasionally see them, acts as a jailer or micromanager. They step in only when they have to (i.e. the baby is in danger of being hurt - which very seldom happens in the movie).I think part of a baby's appeal is their ultimate mystery. Sure, we can usually figure out (from coos and cries) whether a baby is happy, sad, or frightened. But when they simply stare at something, what are they thinking? Nobody, not even the baby, really knows. I appreciate that "Babies" keeps silent and non-judgmental about that mystery and does not indulge psychological theories and speculation about the children's' motivations. However, the viewer may come up with some of his or her own.The movie rotates more or less in sequence among the four children, which all more or less receive equal time. Again, the movie is non-judgmental about the children's' race and circumstances; for example, it does not wring its hands about Ponijao's "poor" upbringing or tout Mari's and Hattie's formative advantages (e.g. baby yoga classes). Babies don't care about those things and the movie gently reminds us that adults shouldn't either. All that matters are the love babies receive and the pleasure they give in return."Babies" made me chuckle with the children's unself-conscious antics but even more often made my eyes mist with their mere presence. The movie reminds us that babies are one of nature's (God's) true masterpieces and that their existence is a comforting reminder of humanity's ultimate immortality.

...nor the hard of heart or bereft of intellectual curiosity, "Babies" is a straightforward look at the first year or so of four babies born in disparate parts of the world. Narration is non-existent, the score by Bruno "Coraline" Coulais is whimsical and thankfully non-intrusive, the editing by Craig "The Silence of the Lambs" McKay and Reynald "Rwanda: History of a Genocide" Bertrand is tightly focused, ably abetting the fine direction by documentarian Thomas "How Much Is Your Life Worth?" Balmès. Production-wise, no one can fault "Babies." Beyond that, I'm unsurprised that the gentler sex rates this film more than a full point over the males. Sadly, only a handful of worldwide IMDbers appear to have bothered with the film, and I'm not sure if that's simply a reflection of poor distribution, or an indictment of the nature of IMDbers. Apparently, it's just now beginning to achieve any sort of genuine international distribution, theatrical or otherwise. If it ever does manage to penetrate mass consciousness, I suspect its mediocre rating on this site will rise. If not, well, more's the loss to cinematic hoi polloi.Documentary buffs will recognize elements of works like "March of the Penguins," "Winged Migration," and the like. Anyone willing to shelve their personal shibboleths and shove their cultural biases to the side will find much to enjoy, despite the lack of much of a dramatic arc beyond the natural progression of babies from helplessness to standing on their own two feet. And no one who deigns to call themself human or civilized can fail to recognize the uncomplicated theme of the commonality of experience and the universality of love from one side of the globe to the other. Highly recommended.