Pretty Baby (1978 film)
| Pretty Baby | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Louis Malle |
| Produced by | Louis Malle Polly Platt (associate) |
| Screenplay by | Polly Platt |
| Story by | Polly Platt Louis Malle |
| Starring |
Brooke Shields Keith Carradine Susan Sarandon |
| Music by | Ferdinand Morton |
| Cinematography | Sven Nykvist |
| Edited by | Suzanne Fenn |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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109 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $5,786,368 |
Pretty Baby is a 1978 American historical fiction and drama film directed by Louis Malle, and starring Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, and Susan Sarandon. The screenplay was written by Polly Platt. The plot focuses on a 12-year-old prostitute in the red-light district of New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century.
The title of the film is inspired by the Tony Jackson song, "Pretty Baby," which is used in the soundtrack. Although the film was mostly praised by critics, it caused significant controversy due to its depiction of child prostitution and the nude scenes of Brooke Shields, who was 12 years old.
In 1917, during the last months of legal prostitution in Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans, Louisiana, Hattie is a prostitute working at an elegant brothel run by the elderly, cocaine-sniffing Madame Nell. Hattie has given birth to a baby boy and has a 12-year-old daughter, Violet, who lives in the house. When photographer Ernest J. Bellocq comes with his camera, Hattie and Violet are the only people awake. He asks to be allowed to take photographs of the women. Madame Nell agrees only after he offers to pay.
Bellocq becomes a fixture in the brothel, photographing the prostitutes, mostly Hattie. His activities fascinate Violet, though she believes he is falling in love with her mother, which makes her jealous. Violet is a restless child, frustrated by the long, precise process Bellocq must go through to pose and take pictures.
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