Just in time for Mother's Day, heee-res "Babies"!! Put the DVD on the gift list for a new Mom or an older one. Thomas Balmes' film, a fixating documentary, will teach her one key thing: The baby will grow up, will be happy and healthy, will learn to cope with the world.
Balmes and some highly talented camera operators follow four infants from shortly after birth until they're toddlers. The children–Hattie, from San Francisco; Mari, from Tokyo; Ponijao, from Namibia; and Bayarjargel, from Mongolia–are astonishingly alike in how they respond, what they do, what they try to do. All four are well-loved, well-fed (to their family standards) and from two-parent families. Hattie and Mari are modern "civilized" children, with expensive strollers and teams of physicians and caretakers. Ponijao lives in a hovel in the desert, sucking on a bone after the dog has tossed it aside, watching the flies crawl over his body. Bayarjargel is barely disturbed when a goat wanders up and drinks from his bath water. Hattie has a temper tantrum and Mom beams.
There is almost no dialogue because this is a film about babies, and none of these four is ready to speak (besides, as the old joke goes, since they get everything they want without being verbal, why should they bother). Bruno Coulais has contributed some excellent music, and Calmes merely moves from child to child, observing them while they study their feet, watching them interact with pet animals who allow themselves to be mauled because they understand babies. The Mongolian boy is part of a nomadic family, but his family dog is cool when the child sticks his hand into the animal's mouth. The Namibian child benefits from what might be called group nursing. There are many women in the community; almost all are bare-breasted (they might have served as National Geographic models) and if a child is hungry, the feeding mechanism is at hand.
If Calmes is making a point in his fascinating movie, it is that the American parents, and the Japanese to a slightly lesser degree, spend far too much time and energy hovering and trying to deal with every want as soon as the child thinks of one. Feed the children. Love them. Cuddle them. Protect them from real danger and don't worry about imaginary threats.
As someone once said, "The kids will be all right."
Opens today at several theaters
–Joe