Pretty Baby

Storyville, New Orleans, 1917. Twelve-year-old Violet is growing up in a brothel alongside her mother Hattie. What is routine for the house is routine for the child. The photographer E. J. Bellocq comes to take portraits of the women and an attachment forms between him and Violet. Her mother marries out and leaves her behind, then returns to reclaim her. Louis Malle directed his first film in the United States. Brooke Shields plays Violet, Keith Carradine plays Bellocq and Susan Sarandon plays Hattie. Sven Nykvist photographed it. The budget was 3 million dollars and it took 5.8 million. It won the Technical Grand Prize at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar for its score. The reviews divided; Roger Ebert praised it as an evocation of a time and a place while others found it flat and dull. The real argument was about the content. Its depiction of child sexual exploitation and the nude scenes Shields filmed as a minor drew heavy objection. It was banned in several Canadian provinces and in South Africa. Whether the film exploits the subject or genuinely examines the vulnerability of a child is still argued today. Who it is for: viewers interested in the period detail and in Nykvist's light. Who it is not for: anyone who will not accept a child filmed nude in this way. The objection is legitimate and the film has carried it from the start.