Simone de Beauvoir's Babies (2 discs)
1997, 360 minutes, Rated M
After a 20-year high school reunion, a group of women , now in their late thirties , meet to reconsider where the last twenty years have left them. As teenagers in the 70's they were from relatively affluent backgrounds, well educated and well equipped to control their own fertility. All had high expectations about the perfect partner - he would be both soul mate and friend. But reality had fallen short of their expectations and they now find themselves without partners, without children, sitting on biological timebombs.
It's Karla, still the ringleader, who hatches the plan. Why not have babies anyway? If they haven't got partners, so what? Who needs men once the deed is done? The other are incredulous. Larke reminds them of their old bravado - that dimly remembered, wild, all conquering feeling. They could make a pact and procreate en masse. One by one the others are seduced by the idea. All except Diane.
Louise comes to realise that her affairs with married men are taking her nowhere and a brief flirtation with introduction agencies only depresses her. Maybe if she had a baby she's have something of her own to love. Of course she would have to totally reorganise her hectic career, which doesn't allow time for a life, let alone a baby.
Sue goes into the scheme in the same way that has launched into most other ventures - completely irrationally. She compares their lives to that of Simone De Beauvoir, the French writer who had been faithful to her feminist principles and her man, but ended up with only her principles. These could be the babies that Simone De Beauvoir never had.
Dianne is the only one that Karla fails to convince. She knows a baby is not what she needs to make her happyand she lashes out at the others for their questionable motives.
Throughout it all we follow the rocky and imperfect execution of their plan through miscarriages, rekindled flames and unexpected romances.
- Director:
- Starring:
- anne Lobby [2], David Wenham [35], Sonia Todd [81], Phillip Holder [3], Phillip Gordon [3], Leverne McDonnell [3], Sally Cooper [4],
- Screen Formats:
- Full Frame 1.33:1
- Language and Sound:
- English Dolby Digital Stereo
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