Pretty Baby

Director: Louis Malle Louis Malle

Overview

Controversial in its day for its frank look at child prostitution and for the racy love scenes involving 12-year-old Brooke Shields and Keith Carradine, this film offers a non-sensationalized look into a little-known world that is as intriguing as it is repellent.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/01/2020
UPC:	0032429352460
Original Release:	1978
Rating:	R
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Language:	English
Time:	1:49:00
Sales rank:	483

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Brooke Shields	Violet
Susan Sarandon	Hattie
Keith Carradine	Bellocq
Frances Faye	Mme. Nell Livingston
Antonio Fargas	Professor, Piano Player
Gerrit Graham	Highpockets
Mae Mercer	Mama Mosebery
Diana Scarwid	Frieda
Barbara Steele	Josephine
Matthew Anton	Red Top,Red Top
Seret Scott	Flora
Cheryl Markowitz	Gussie
Susan Manskey	Fanny
Laura Zimmerman	Agnes
Miz Mary	Odette
Don Hood	Alfred Fuller
Don K. Lutenbacher	Violet's First Customer
Pat Perkins	Ola Mae,Nonny
Sasha Holliday	Justine
Lisa Shames	Antonia
Harry Braden	Harry
Philip H. Sizeler	Senator
Don Lutenbacher	Violet's 1st Customer

Technical Credits

Maureen Lambray	Special Effects
Louis Malle	Director,Producer

Editorial Reviews

Louis Malle's film on the world of child prostitution is notably slack and uninvolving despite its controversial subject. Brooke Shields stars as Violet, the daughter of prostitute Hattie (Susan Sarandon), who is raised in a brothel in turn-of-the-century New Orleans' Storyville, and decides to adopt her mother's profession. Malle, who successfully broached the subject of incest in Le Souffle au Coeur (1971), tries to pull off a similar feat here, but despite his attempt to make a much older man's sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl seem like a ho-hum alternative, he shies away from the issue by aestheticizing and muting the depiction of sex. Keith Carradine plays the essentially voyeuristic photographer Bellocq, whose attraction to the young girl is more contemplative than physical. There is little difference between his point of view and that of the film, and there is really no character for Shields to play, as Malle renders her as more object than subject. Viewers are left with the slow-moving spectacle of beautiful women lounging around their well-appointed workplace waiting for clients -- not particularly painful perhaps, but not too compelling either. That said, the film is beautifully photographed by Sven Nykvist, and for horror fans, cult actress Barbara Steele makes one of her last film appearances.