Pretty Baby [DVD]

I like this movie and I have seen this countless of times. 'Pretty Baby' is a testament to the fact that the 70's were vastly more liberated than our times, at least when it comes to sexuality. In here pretty baby is twelve-year-old Violet, played by Brooke Shields. Violet has grown in the environment of a circa World War I whorehouse in New Orleans, where her mother Hattie (Susan Sarandon) practices the oldest of professions. She still acts like a child, one who likes to chase lizards in the underbrush and who throws tantrums when she doesn't get her way. When her mother leaves the brothel to start a respectable life, Violet remains and allows her virginity to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. She finds herself drawn to a photographer, Bellocq, who is taking portraits of Storyville prostitutes. Realizing that she is love, the young Violet declares her intention to marry Bellocq...

Brook performance literally carries this movie. Yes, the movie is quite explicit about the business of prostitution during that time, but it is never exploited and gives one the sense of how it really was, and what might happen to children born into prostitution. Malle's dispassionate take on all of this outraged viewers a quarter-century ago, but it all seems rather tame today. Perhaps too tame.........

Malle's restraint is so great at times that one wishes he'd pushed the envelope even more. But he got an amazing performance out of Shields, one that she never topped in her career as an actress -- Violet is a mesmerizing combination of innocent child and sly young woman, and that we never see her as a victim is to both her credit and Malle's. Some of the other acting in the film is less impressive, especially Frances Faye as the brothel's elderly owner, Nell -- she's simply horrible, turning in one of the worst performances seen outside of early John Waters' movies. Still, it's a beautiful movie. Its slow pace may frustrate some viewers, but 'Pretty Baby' is a gorgeous, emotionally stunning experience.

Produced and directed by Louis Malle in the late seventies, Pretty Baby portrays the taboo subject of child prostitution in the early twentieth century. The film became very controversial for obvious reasons. It shows Brooke Shields (who plays Violet) at the age of twelfth often completely naked and in a sexual role unsuitable for a minor. The film is based mainly in a house set in the red light district of New Orleans and follows the character of E.J Bellocq (Keith Carradine) a photographer who becomes involved with Violet. There are some powerful and 'disturbing' scenes throughout the film. One that comes to mind is when they start to auction her to a room of gentleman selling her as a virgin and refering to her as "The finest delicacy New Orleans has to offer" and selling her like a piece of meat to the highest bidder. However if you can see past certain things then you will see that Pretty Baby is a film of humanity and beauty. Is an original one of a kind film that shows how life was and how life changed. The acting throughout the film and from everyone is just amazing. However I feel as a serious film fan that I should point out that the British release of the DVD has been cut. Its running time is only 105 minutes while the running time of the American release is 109 minutes which is slightly longer (you can check by searching for Pretty Baby region 1 on Amazon and scrolling down to its running time.) I couldn't tell you what exactly has been cut out and why. Also I would have liked to have seen some special features on the DVD that are worth watching. Currently there are none. But all things considered I think that Pretty Baby is a film that everyone should see at least once.

Beautifully fimed and well acted with star performances from Susan Saranden and the very young Brooke Shields this film is a real treasure.

Pretty Baby tells the storey of a prostitute and her teenage daughter living in an open New Orleans Brothel in the second decade of the twentieth century delicately, without crudity or malice. It pulls no punches without being in the least pornographic and handles the sale of a young girl's virginity - under age by today's values - with an honesty that would perhaps be difficult to achieve today pre-occupied as it is with concerns of the politically correct.
This is not a tale of the exploitation of the actresses or the characters in the storey, because they clearly have control of their own destinies. It is a right of passage with an ending that speaks of a future surprisingly full of hope.
Sweet it certainly is, but nostalgia and the integrity of the production allow us to believe in a gentler past without the influence of drugs, organised crime and the desire to legislate for every aspect of the human condition.