MovieChat Forums > Bébé(s) (2010) Discussion > Why Is There Such Animosity For This Fil...

Why Is There Such Animosity For This Film?

posted 14 years ago by berlin_alexanderplatz
19 replies | jump to latest

I'm really surprised at all the animosity there is for this film. I suppose people just don't really understand what it is. To me it plays more like a nature doc than anything else. Think Microcosmos or Winged Migration. It's very beautifully shot and absolutely engrossing. It's very artfully done with no V.O. or gimmicky music. All in all, it's just a really interesting look into the lives of babies from different upbringings.

If given a chance I think people will really enjoy this film.

[–] user-4720 14 years ago

Because good movies are fighting for space in movie houses and this junk is shown.
Its box office is horrible. No wonder.

[–] diamondhead49 14 years ago

It's box office is horrible because people are half wits who demand to be entertained instead of gaining entertainment on their own.

Keep following the herd, it must be fun to be a mindless drone.

"My cat can eat a whole watermelon!" - Ruben and Ed

[–] nicver 14 years ago

It made a comfortable profit. Horrible hox office.

[–] harmedandderangerous 14 years ago

Allowing that there is "such animosity" for this film (that is, most films get a lot of animosity for one reason or another) I'm going to guess that the animosity for this particular film comes from an air of self-indulgence and self-importance about the project. That is, everybody loves their own baby and thinks their own baby is the cutest thing between here and the end of the universe and so here's a film about four particular babies out of how many million born this year? Why should people care about these particular four babies any more than the baby across the street? It's like the baby pictures you don't want shoved in your face except times a billion.

I'm just taking a psychological stab at this for the sake of debate and discussion so don't jump all over me as if I'm stating this as my own aggression for this film. I mean, why not a doc about babies? There's docs about everything else...

[–] J_R_Cash 14 years ago

I think it's because there is no form of narration, barely any music, and no interview whatsoever from ANY of the parents; what we would normally find in a documentary, we don't really have with this one. With the exception of a handful of scenes, we literally see these babies in their home, just sitting there.

Obviously, this is a documentary about babies, and that is what we have paid to see; I enjoyed it, but I would have loved to have seen some sort of variance, than a baby sitting there in a tub or having a fit or seeing them breastfeed. For an entire hour and a half-ish, that's all we see. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it and it is beautifully shot (that's probably what I love about it), but it left me wanting MORE, but not more baby if that makes sense.

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[–] berlin_alexanderplatz 14 years ago

I think you're right Explosivebolts, but truthfully that's why people are missing the boat on this film. It's not about babies being cute, etc. It's an ethnographic study of what EVERY baby goes through in their adjustment to the world.

And to address your thoughts JR Cash, I understand what you're saying, but your criticisms are the exact reason I loved the film. Not to say that you didn't enjoy the film, because you obviously did. But I think I what seemed so refreshing to me was the allowance to just watch and witness these pivotal moments in these human being's lives.

Thanks for the discussion!

[–] oneseat 14 years ago

I agree and just want to add that I loved the lack of narration and the almost total focus on the babies themselves, just showing us close-ups of moments in their everyday lives and letting us interpret the significance ourselves.

I don't know why I was surprised to come to this board and find the animosity this thread asks about. You really can't go to any discussion board without stumbling over vitriol, hate, paranoia, and simple-minded political partisanship. You could start a thread called "Chocolate is yummy," and you'd get someone calling chocolate a corporate conspiracy to make everyone fat and someone else calling you an anti-white liberal shill. And of course at least three people would call chocolate "the most boring food ever."

[–] madeleine_swain 13 years ago

That is one of the smartest posts I have read on this site. EVER. You are a superior human being. And I love chocolate.

[–] joanna164 13 years ago

i liekd this movie a lot i enjoyed it having no narration its nice to just watch and take things in....would i pay 10 bucks to seee this ina theater..NO..but it was a nice netflix treat

[–] oneseat 14 years ago

Case in point.

[–] freebird3411 14 years ago

I'm sure you didn't babysit babies raised in African tribes or Mongolian farms. The point of this movie is to show how babies are raised across the world and how different yet similar they are.

[–] piglet44 14 years ago

It's hardly an ethnographical study. It really doesnt tell us anything the average person doesn't already know instinctively ie that babies are brought up differently in different habitats but they all learn to crawl, walk eat and talk.So what? Yes it was beautiful to see the different landscapes but I thought the movie was too long and did not really give any new exciting insights.I was pretty bored about an hour into it and waiting for some kind of revelation ie did the fact that the Mongolian kid was tied up most of the time influence his development, or the fact that the Namibian one was surrounded all the time by people (mostly female) impact her development?
It was just rather superficial imho

[–] nicver 14 years ago

I took it as an ethnographical study and enjoyed it.

The Namibian family was the most interesting of all.

The fathers were nowhere to be found. As if the women were in charge of the infants and toddlers and the men had nothing to do with it.

[–] mrs-jindrak 13 years ago

I don't think it's animosity to say that I don't like a film.

Of course then someone will always come along and explain how I "don't get it" or "missed the point".

No, I understand. Truthfully I was surprised at how bad this is. And no, it's not an ethnographic study of any sort. The babies being brought up in Tokyo, Mongolia, and Namibia are no more typical of those countries than the San Francisco baby's upbringing is typical of your's or mine's or any other American's. The SF parents were so atypical it made me wonder what the filmmakers were on about.

[–] videavice 12 years ago

"I thought the movie was too long and did not really give any new exciting insights.I was pretty bored about an hour into it and waiting for some kind of revelation ie did the fact that the Mongolian kid was tied up most of the time influence his development, or the fact that the Namibian one was surrounded all the time by people (mostly female) impact her development? "

There is so many things you missed and it can happen but I can't accept such a heavy word as superficial.

The movie was too long? How? We saw the first year of their life only in a hour and 16 min. IMO it's pretty short, shorter than the 2h30' of Transformers crap or Twilight BS which are really pointless and boring movies. There's no revelation to expect because the documentary follows regular families, in their everyday life.

The fake dramas to pump up the story are unnecessary because we're not watching a scripted reality show on E entertainment. And even though, they don't need outside tools to dramatize the story a little more. They was enough real comedic moments all the film long.

I disagree with the assumption on an impacted development. Did you really mean it? Did you just assume they're impacted so bad by their relationship with their family, their behavior will dramatically change and gonna give us a twist for the movie plotline. Some action in the house??!!!

Again the point of all this is to show that whoever you are, whereever you're from, whatever the color of your skin, your culture, your religion, your money, your gender is, your kids are exactly the same as the neighbor's children. They act the same, they evolve the same, they laugh at the same thing and cry out loud the same when they're sad. The point is we're are all human beings and so identical at a creature scale.

cave canem

[–] Lexiii67 14 years ago

I think people didn't realize that a movie titles "Babies" would actually be about babies. Idiots.

[–] veryfloraly 13 years ago

its not even a big deal whether they like it or not but people just wanna troll I swear

for some reason I kill threads : /

[–] scottythefield 13 years ago

oneseat was OTM. Chocolate is yummy.

[–] 13 years ago

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