Babies (Bébé(s) - 2010)

We must have seen the trailer for this a dozen times, and each viewing made us chuckle. The full length (79 minutes) documentary did not disappoint. We had saved this one for Amy, too, and all three of us loved it. The movie follows four babies from birth to first birthday in four parts of the world: Hattie in San Francisco; Mari in Tokyo, Japan; Ponijao in Opuwo, Namibia (west coast of Africa, the next country north of South Africa, their village is near the border with Angola), and Bayar in Bayanchandmani Töv Aimag, Mongolia (south of Russia, north of China, they live in the middle of the country). The first two live urban lives and the latter two rural. Imdb's web page contains one glaring error: it lists all four babies as playing "herself." Bayar is clearly a boy. We witness his birth (in a hospital), and, as Jack puts it, "We can see his junk." I posted a comment--let's see if they fix it. The trailer opens with Ponijao and her younger sister squabbling over a plastic bottle, completely aware of the camera on them (why wouldn't they be? They have had cameras on them their whole lives thus far). Theirs is the most basic existence: they live in huts, women have bare breasts, and no adult men are anywhere in the Namibian segments (one post on imdb says that the men follow the cattle while the women and children stay in the village). There is some dialogue but no subtitles. We really didn't miss them. The Americans talk the most and we understood them, so--there we are. The others do more communicating with body language and baby talk. Here's one of many interviews with the director, Thomas Balmes, who is French (hence the Bébé(s) above).

The music is wonderful. The song from the trailer, The Perpetual Self or “What Would Saul Alinsky Do?” by Sufjan Stevens, runs over the credits, and the rest of the music is by Bruno Coulais, about whom I wrote a month ago for his score for Oceans. Here's a clip featuring vocals by Rosemary Standley, and an article about the soundtrack.

This is being held over locally so you can see it on the big screen. And see it you must, one way or the other. Bring your own babies. Balmes hints in some of his interviews that there will be bonus material on the DVD.

We saw this at Terrace Theater in Charleston, a suburban movie house decorated with vintage posters. Before the movie, they showed the "Let's all go to the Lobby" video which greatly pleased us old geezers.