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Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Fresh and Exciting

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

They don't make great movies like this anymore. This movie is not for conservatives. It has a great plot ans terrific acting. Movie has been criticized for the underage nudity and sexual content. However, its a great movie and these types of relationships happened very common in the old days if you watch enough movies to understand. Young girl is forced to grow up in a hostel or prostitute house. She falls in love with an older man like the movie Lolita.

"Pretty Baby" is set in 1917 in Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans. At one time the city was notorious for legally tolerated prostitution, although this came to an end because of pressure from the Army and Navy following America's entry into World War I, shortly after the events depicted in the film. The main characters are Hattie, a prostitute working in a high-class brothel, her 12-year-old daughter, Violet, and Ernest J. Bellocq, a photographer obsessed with taking photographs of the brothel and its inhabitants. (Bellocq was a real historical individual, Hattie and Violet are fictitious). Bellocq is not just obsessed with photography; he also becomes obsessed with young Violet whom he marries, despite her tender years, after the brothel madam has auctioned off her virginity to the highest bidder.There are some similarities between this film and another controversial seventies film about child prostitution, Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver". Both films introduced a young actress who would go on to become a well-known star, Brooke Shields here and Jodie Foster in Scorsese's film, and both girls give quite remarkable performances characterised by a disturbing mixture of innocence and sexual precocity. Foster has become one of the cinema's most accomplished actresses, whereas, in my view at least, Shields has never really risen to the same heights, although she has remained a well-known Hollywood name. Here, however, the young Brooke's performance is marked by a greater emotional depth and immediacy than she has achieved in many of her roles as an adult, and she is certainly the best thing about the film, together with its elegant recreation of the period.Shields apart, however, the acting does not amount to much. In 1978 Susan Sarandon was a young actress on the verge of becoming a major star, but here as Hattie she does not really show much evidence of this. As for Keith Carradine as Bellocq, his mannered and languid acting is just dull. He had been much better the previous year in "The Duellists".It is, moreover, not just Carradine's acting that is languid; Louis Malle's direction means that the film itself moves at a stately, almost funereal, pace. It is in nothing like the same class as "Taxi Driver", which had a contemporary rather than a period setting. Scorsese's film is notable for its tension, its emotional power, its fine characterisation and its social comment, all of which are lacking here."Pretty Baby" may be set in 1917, but it is very much a film of its time, one that today tells you more about the 1970s than it does about the 1910s. In 2012, given modern fears about paedophilia, a film about a twelve-year-old prostitute which included scenes of her naked would be almost as unthinkable as it would have been in the days of the Production Code. In the good old nineteen-seventies, however, there was a widely-held feeling that every film director worthy of the name- certainly every auteur director worthy of the name- was under a solemn duty to break as many taboos as he possibly could, without regard to traditional views of morality or decency, and Malle, who had previously made "Le Soufflé au Coeur" about mother-son incest, was clearly an auteur of this stamp. The film was quite controversial at the time, although not nearly as controversial as a film on this subject would be today.With many once-controversial works of art, the conventional modern reaction is to raise one eyebrow and to ask, rhetorically, "What was all the fuss about?" With "Pretty Baby" a more likely reaction would be to ask, non-rhetorically, "Why wasn't there more fuss?" Malle's artistic freedom was defended by many critics who today would be howling for his lynching from the nearest lamp-post. That said, the film is still widely available on DVD and is occasionally shown on television, having acquired something of the status of a historical artifact. Perhaps that is how it deserves to be best-remembered, as an ancient monument to a curious type of seventies permissiveness. It manages to achieve the strange feat of being simultaneously controversial and boring. 5/10

Pretty Baby is based on the diaries of a woman named Violet who grew up in the brothels of New Orleans. It is also based on the story of Ernest J. Bellocq, a photographer who worked in the same area.There have been numerous reviews written about the film and it's controversial subject matter. Violet is born into a brothel just like her mother and it is here that she enters into the profession herself.I would just like to say that the film is my favorite because of the atmosphere and the way the film is shot. We are voyeurs here. Watching a small window of time involving the people of this brothel in 1919. The sets and costumes all are perfectly done reminding one of an old oil painting. Muted colors, drapes, carpets, couches and ornate wall dressings all add to the mood of the film and you can't take your eyes off of it.People looking for an action film are not going to enjoy this at all. But if you enjoy thoughtful period pieces you will probably enjoy this despite the subject matter.I've watched it probably 50 times and dig it out once a year to enjoy it.

Set in 1917 New Orleans. This is the story of a brothel and the women working there. One of them, Hattie (Susan Sarandon), has a 12 year old girl named Violet (Brooke Shields). Bellocq (Keith Carradine) pays to photograph the women but doesn't have sex with any of them. However he seems strongly attracted to Violet who is being set up to be a prostitute like her mom.This sounds a lot worse than it plays. It was hugely controversial when it came out mostly because Shields was 12 and has nude scenes. The subject matter alone caused outrage but seriously...this film has no impact. It's extremely low key to a ridiculous degree. Everything is done in such a calm laid-back manner that it doesn't seem even remotely exploitive. Considering the subject matter the film is incredibly tame. The only nudity comes from Sarandon and Shields and it's never sexual in context. The film looks great too and it's (purportedly) factual. The low key tone works--but after a while it gets downright boring. EVERYBODY acts low key. I was just hoping somebody would overreact to something. Also the story gets more than a little unbelievable towards the end. The acting is good by Sarandon and the other women. Frances Faye as the head of the house is great and it's always good to see Barbara Steele. However Shields is terrible--but she WAS only 12. Carradine is even worse. Very stiff and wooden. This isn't a bad movie just a dull one. Hard to believe a movie about a 12 year old prostitute could be dull--but it is. It definitely would not be made today. I give it a 6.