Pretty Baby

good picture and sound for 1978

Very few movies are truly works of art. This is one of them. There are no explosions that throw bodies through the air, no sensational car crashes, no severed human limbs. Rather there is a plot that unfolds on its own good time, well drawn characters, excellently written dialogue, perfect atmosphere, and gorgeous photography. Still, I understand why some might find the film objectionable. There is nudity, even nudity of a pubescent girl. There is open talk of sex. And some quasi moralists are more offended by that than by graphic violence. Sex, of course, is part of life and is legal, but it must not be shown or suggested very clearly. Murder, on the other hand, is illegal but is shown every night on TV with little protest from the moralists. The acting here is seamless. Susan Sarandon gives her best performance, as does Brook Shields. But the performance that I found most startling was that of the bordello madame. There was an area of New Orleans called Storyville, for some 20 years, where prostitution was confined, ending about World War I. That much of the plot is true. And the photographer Bellocq existed; some of his art has survived. But he didn't look anything like the character in this film, or so we are led to believe from descriptions of him. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. There is nothing I've seen like it. It is truly an art film.

At least it is today, with all the phobia about child nudity, modeling or sexual themes involving children. But the politics would 'take forever', and who is going to change your mind if this offends you? The story is well written and easy to follow;'The early 20th century and brothels'. This one just happens to have a young girl who is a prostitute. Seem that 'pedophilic' thoughts were more cultural and acceptable, rather than political.. up through the turn of the century, until 'the Temperance' movement affected alot of social 'order' and 'morality'. Brooke, who I had the pleasure of meeting in 1983: (despite the media) is a well balanced, nice, sweet, wonderful woman. Her posing nude, and being nude 'in the movie' at age 11, hasn't crippled her for life. People magazine in 1978 did an article about her - the 'controversy' about 'child porn'...front cover.(gasp)again the politics, and religion of it all. but the movie was not degrading, nor inciting what we hear today about 'child abuse' or 'harm'.. rather depictions, and documentary style (of the era) was painted into this movie, which for 1978 was no more shocking than Linda Blair vomiting all over a priest. like any cult favorite, you have to be a realist, and have an open mind about 'all' aspects of life; or you might think you have to start a political movement on behalf of eliminating more freedom of speech. There is no 'sex' in the movie; and ideally isn't 'pornographic' to the extent that many write their congress-person about. (many want Anne Franks diary banned!!) So if you are not embarrassed to give Amazon your credit card number and address- for fear of being thought a child 'molester'...and a seeing a child briefly nude doesnt 'offend' you, and you are a Brooke fan, ...'loved her in her other movies and Tv as well, then collect this piece of history, before it disappears.

Great movies, like great literature, are capable of evoking a definite atmosphere, that of the time and setting of the story, the plot of which, then, almost loses significance. The atmosphere in this case is that of New Orleans at the turn of last century - a slight anachronism here sets the story in 1917 to match the timing of the closure of Storyville, New Orleans's red light district, located roughly between Rampart and Robeson, Iberville and St. Louis, of which nothing remains today. That atmosphere is well expressed by the music, especially that of the pianist in the movie, who is modeled after Jelly Roll Morton, a pioneer jazz pianist and composer, and plays his compositions. For the curious listener, I have listed here some of the works by Jelly Roll and when they get played in the movie: 3:30 - 4:45, Winin's Boy Blues #1 5:05 - 7:21, Tiger's Rag, from the typical NO repertory, including the tiger's roar 24:35 - 25:00, Jelly Roll 26:11 - 27:12, Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say #1 30:10 - 31:30, Winin' Boy Blues #2 38:39 - 43:20, (composing of ) King Porter Stomp, in the background when the Susan Sarandon character poses half-naked for the photographer 54:46 - 56:35, (Original Jelly Roll?) Blues, with clarinet and bass 1:47:15 - 1:49:15 Blues We can add to this the sweet, though perhaps already outdated by 1917, music played by the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra, with the nice Creole clarinet of Louis Cottrell, who used to play in the Preservation Hall. It is impossible to underestimate the importance of New Orleans in the world of culture, since it can be stated, as Jelly Roll Morton did, that it was for the musical world what Florence of the 14th and 15th century was for the visual arts. The fact that such culture flourished in whorehouses instead at the courts of princes is thus just a reflection of the cultural level of racist American society - which should be proud of its lupanars - which has prevented its own great culture to be accepted by its puritanical obsession, which led to the disaster of prohibition and the present overfilling of prisons for acts, such as possessing marijuana, which are not criminal in most of the civilized world. Beside the music, there are great moments in this movie. Brooke Shields, besides being pretty, has an interesting role, oscillating between her behavior as a future [prostitute] and that of an immature girl, with a lot of innocence - which incidentally is to be found among all those ladies certainly despised by the pseudo-moralistic mainstream, that same one which seems so popular these days in the US. The Madam looks like a true character, a worn out woman with distinguished manners who keeps up with absinthe and cocaine (not without some humor, as when she says: "there are only two things you can do in a rainy day, and I don't like playing cards!"). And I am sure that the character of the distinguished photographer existed in reality, since I remember having seen an exhibition of pictures of such ladies taken in New Orleans at that time (in spite of the howling of some who wanted to label it degrading and censor it). Add to this the great photography, and the intelligence of Louis Malle, who has always used Jazz in a respectful way, as in "Elevator to the Gallows" with the music of Miles Davis and "Murmur of Heart" with that of Charlie Parker - the latter exploring an even more controversial subject than "Pretty Baby", that of an incest with the mother, in a poetic way. The only reason I am not giving this movie five stars is because I would have loved to see more of the Jelly Roll Morton character. One has almost to strain his/her ear to listen to his composing of the masterpiece "King Porter Stomp" while the photographer tries to take pictures of Hattie (Susan Sarandon). Perhaps some viewers may prefer Sarandon's naked tits over Morton's playing, but that's not my case! But on the whole this is a great movie and is to be recommended heartily to everybody, perhaps especially to Americans who generally know close to nothing of the great culture which has been created in the very places their society has systematically despised, by people which are still often considered as an inferior "race" (whatever that means).

This movie always gets me! It’s very sad and has me thinking about it for like a week! Brooke Shields has always been an amazing actress despite all the animosity. Yes it’s awful that she was nude at that age and she had to kiss a grown man but like she said, things were different back then. This movie will definitely make you cry and think about things way differently.

How this Film was ever made, & passed the Censors is beyond me. This would never have passed the Censorship Laws operating for many years, by The Legion Of Decency, Catholic. Clearly those laws were outdated when this thing was made. I can’t understand how a 11 year old girl ( Brooke Shields ) was allowed to play the girl brought up in a Brothel, & taught the trade as a child, was allowed to act the part in this Movie. I liked Keith Carradine before viewing this, & was very disappointed. He admired Greer Garson, & her ideals, & spoke of these often, so what happened to him here. I doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Loved to see this classic movie again..

🎥 Ce film de Louis Malle est un pur chef d'œuvre du cinéma français car, bien que tourné aux Etats-Unis, le film respecte la temporalité française et le cadrage français et l'intelligence du cinéma français des années 70 (1978 très exactement). 🎥 📽 Pour être rapide et concis, ce film est d'une subtilité infinie et d'une richesse époustouflante : un plan fixe muet peut vouloir dire tant de choses fortes, une simple réplique peut bousculer les certitudes, un regard peut avoir une signification extraordinaire ! 📽 🎺 Les décors de la Nouvelle Orléans et de la maison close sont sublimes. On est face à une reconstitution historique prodigieuse. Alors, on ne s'ennuie pas une seconde ! C'est la magie de ce film français où chaque scène fait penser à un tableau d'Edouard Manet ! 🎺 🔑 Quant au sujet du film, au-delà de toute polémique, il s'agit d'une page d'histoire que l'on ne peut pas effacer et qu'il est bon de montrer afin de ne pas l'oublier. Un analyste fin verra qu'il n'y a pas de complaisance ici, loin de là, mais un récit poignant avec toute sa part d'humanité : ses peines mais aussi ses joies. Louis Malle prouve une fois de plus qu'il est un réalisateur immense et un des plus dignes représentant de la culture française. 🔑 🌎 L'impact de ce film a été planétaire, tant mieux. Pour seul exemple, et quel exemple, saviez-vous que la chanson "Pretty baby" de Blondie est une référence à ce film ? Debbie Harry revient d'ailleurs sur cette chanson dans son excellente autobiographie "Face it" (n'hésitez pas à lire mon commentaire sur ce livre) : https://www.amazon.fr/Face-lautobiographie-mémoires-licône-Blondie/dp/B08C9987BT 🌈 Alors, oui, quelle que soit votre opinion, vous allez voir un excellent film français d'une finesse et d'une beauté absolues. Susan Sarandon est parfaite dans son rôle ambivalent et elle porte une grande partie du film sur ses épaules mais c'est surtout la caméra de Louis Malle qui est tout simplement fantastique en nous plongeant au cœur d'une Nouvelle Orléans peu connue qui a pourtant existé. 🌹 La fin du film (que je ne dévoilerai pas) est sans doute la meilleure des conclusions à ce film et la meilleure des réponses à tout ce qui allait être dit sur ce film. ☀️ Si vous aimez le grand cinéma français des années 70 dans tout ce qu'il a de plus magistral et de plus prenant alors le DVD de "La petite" ("Pretty Baby" en anglais) doit faire partie de votre DVDthèque. 📀 INFO A SAVOIR : à ma connaissance, il n'existe pas de Blu-ray (et encore moins de 4K) de ce film et c'est bien dommage car les images sont sublimes. Donc, vous pouvez acheter le DVD sans crainte de vous dire ensuite "Ce film est trop beau, j'aurais mieux fait d'acheter le Blu-ray" car ce Blu-ray n'existe pas (hélas).

Muy buena historia de esta película me la avían recomendado, asé mucho quería conseguirla pero finalmente la pude conseguir aquí.

Louis Malle n’a pas peur de la controverse. Avec le film « Le souffle au cœur », 1971, qui évoque l’inceste entre une mère et son fils et le film « La Petite » qui traite de la prostitution juvénile, il crée la polémique. Dans « La Petite », tout est réalisé à la perfection : l’histoire, le scénario, le jeu des acteurs (Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, Susan Sarandon, pour n’en nommer que quels un), la beauté des images, les costumes et les décors. Un film du cinéma répertoire à ne pas manquer.