Pretty Baby (1978 film)

Screenwriter Polly Platt developed the idea for the film after meeting with Louis Malle and learning of his love of New Orleans jazz music, which was an integral part of the Storyville red-light district in the city in the early-twentieth century.[5][6]^{: 129–130} Platt based the screenplay on the life of a young girl who was forced into prostitution by her mother, which was recounted in historian Al Rose's 1974 book Storyville, New Orleans: Being an Authentic Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red-Light District, as well as the life of photographer Ernest Bellocq, who photographed various New Orleans prostitutes in the early-twentieth century.[3][5]

Following her acclaimed performance as a child prostitute in Taxi Driver (1976), the studio was keen on casting Jodie Foster as Violet.[4] However, Malle rejected the idea as he thought the role should be played by a 12-year-old only, and Foster was 14. Brooke Shields, a child model who had made her film debut the year before in Alice, Sweet Alice (1976), met with Malle and the film's screenwriter, Polly Platt.[7] She described her audition as consisting merely of a conversation with the two, in which they largely asked her questions about her life.[7] To ensure that Shields was intellectually able to navigate the material, Malle and Platt also inquired if she was aware of what prostitution was.[7] Shields, who had grown up in New York City and observed working prostitutes in Times Square, had been informed by her mother what prostitution entailed.[7]

Susan Sarandon, who was cast as Violet's mother, commented on Shields's casting in the role: "Brooke lived a life that was very similar [to that of her character]... You know... The closest thing to a child prostitute (sexualy exploited child) would be a child actor-model, in this day and age. Brooke was already an incredibly mature kid and I don't think it's any secret that she was... asked to grow up very quickly."[8]^: 175

Platt initially planned for the role of E. J. Bellocq to go to Jack Nicholson, but Malle denounced this.[8]^: 177 Instead, he offered the role to Keith Carradine, which Carradine was confused by as he bore no physical similarities to Bellocq.[8]^{: 175–176}

Pretty Baby was shot on location in New Orleans over a period of four months in 1977.[7] Due to its controversial subject matter, the production stated they were "being very cautious because of the nature of the material and... following all the rules aimed at safeguarding child performers: teachers, psychological testing, parental cooperation and so forth."[3]

Screenwriter Polly Platt stated that Malle insisted on continuous rehearsals throughout the shoot, which frustrated much of the cast and crew. Platt described Shields's mother, Teri, as "obstreprous" on the set, and claimed she was arrested by police for driving while intoxicated with her daughter in the car, as well as for punching a police officer in the face.[8]^: 176

Shields maintained in later years that she "did not experience any distress or humiliation" while filming her nude scenes in the film. What she does remember was trying not to look as if "I'd just sucked on a lemon" before her on-screen kiss with 29-year-old Keith Carradine ("Keith was so kind," she writes) and being soundly slapped – on-screen and for real – by Susan Sarandon.[9]

Commenting on the production, Malle stated: "Pretty Baby was harder than I expected, and in the meantime, I fell in love with America." After filming completed, Malle chose to become a U.S. resident, and remained there for the rest of his life.[6]^: 260

Despite Malle's concerted effort to make the film sanitized of explicit sex, it received significant salacious pre-publicity leading up to its release, including a lengthy article by Joan Goodman in New York Magazine, which described it as "Lolita, only in period costume and much more explicit."[8]^: 180 Further press attention came in the form of Shields's appearance in a pictorial about the film in Playboy in March 1978.[10] Malle's brother, Vincent, commented that the film's pre-publicity was calculated by Malle and "absolutely deliberate. .. It was not something imposed on him by Paramount."[8]^: 181

Film scholar and Malle biographer Nathan Southern wrote that Malle "realized that by leading viewers to expect "sophisticated kiddie porn," but carrying the film's content to the opposite extreme (inexplicitness), the contrast between audience expectations and onscreen reality – the power derived from the modernistic interplay of opposites within the framework of anticipation – would make the film's message of relativistic ethos that much clearer in the audience's mind."[8]^: 181

According to critic Danny Peary, Pretty Baby was released at a period of "peak public outrage over child abuse, child pornography, and child prostitution, and its critics were right to be disappointed that Malle refused to portray Violet's life in a brothel in a negative light... The sledgehammer "selling of Brooke Shields as a pubescent sex symbol," which gained momentum because of the film, was truly tasteless. At least Malle didn't exploit his hot property as much as others did."[8]^: 184

The film received an R rating in the United States, an X rating in the United Kingdom (18 following a change to the ratings system) despite receiving two cuts from censors;[3][11] and an R18+ rating in Australia, for nudity and sexual content.[3]

Continuing controversy over Shields's nude scenes resulted in the film being banned in the Canadian provinces of Ontario[2]^: 39[12][13] and Saskatchewan[14] until 1995. Gossip columnist Rona Barrett called the film "child pornography", and director Louis Malle was described as a "combination of Lolita's Humbert Humbert and (by that point) controversial director Roman Polanski".[15] In Argentina, the film, along with another of Paramount's recent releases (Looking for Mr. Goodbar), was banned under the regime of Jorge Rafael Videla during that country's last civil/military dictatorship due in large part to the "pornographic" content that was present in both films.[16] For five years, the film was also banned by the apartheid regime in South Africa.[17]

Actress Sarandon reflected on the film's censorship in a later interview, commenting that the censors "were looking for something. The film was disturbing... [yet] clearly when you look at it, it doesn't have anything graphic. Even at that time, it was pretty tame."[8]^: 184

In addition to the issue of child prostitution, the scenes involving a nude 12-year-old Brooke Shields were controversial.[15] The BBFC originally censored two scenes for the film's cinema release in the UK to remove nudity, but the uncut version was released on DVD in 2006.[11] This same uncut print is the basis of the Region 1 and Region 2 DVD editions worldwide.[18]

Paramount Home Entertainment released the film on DVD on November 18, 2003.[19] In 2022, the Australian film label Imprint Films released it for the first time on Blu-ray in a special edition, which included an interview with Shields, in which she recalled shooting the film as well as its controversial reception.[20] Kino Lorber announced in January 2023 the forthcoming release of a North American Blu-ray.[21]

The movie was met with a lackluster response from moviegoers. It performed poorly in terms of box office revenue, failing to even make it into the top 50 highest-grossing films of both 1978 and 1979. By December 31, 1978, it only generated $4.13 million in theatrical rentals.[22] Despite its $3 million budget, the film was unable to generate enough ticket sales to cover its production costs.

Pretty Baby divided critics at the time of its release.[8]^: 183 In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote: "Mr. Malle, the French director ... has made some controversial films in his time but none, I suspect, that is likely to upset convention quite as much as this one – and mostly for the wrong reasons. Though the setting is a whorehouse, and the lens through which we see everything is Violet, who ... herself becomes one of Nell's chief attractions, Pretty Baby is neither about child prostitution nor is it pornographic." Canby ended his review with the claim that Pretty Baby is "... the most imaginative, most intelligent, and most original film of the year to date."[23] Film critic Kenneth Turan praised Shields's performance as "chilling," but felt the film largely boasts a "flat, uninvolving directorial style... Like its protagonist, Pretty Baby is something of a carnival attraction, nothing more."[8]^: 183

Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert, who gave the film three stars out of four, discussed how "... Pretty Baby has been attacked in some quarters as child porn. It's not. It's an evocation of a time and a place and a sad chapter of Americana."[24] He also praised Shields's performance, writing that she "... really creates a character here; her subtlety and depth are astonishing."[24]

On the other hand, Variety wrote that "the film is handsome, the players nearly all effective, but the story highlights are confined within a narrow range of ho-hum dramatization."[25] Mountain Xpress critic Ken Hanke, looking at the film from the perspective of 2003, said of Pretty Baby: "It was once shocking and dull. Now it's just dull."[26]

As of March 2023, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 71% of 28 critics had given the film a favorable review, with a weighted average of 6.88/10.[26]

The film won the Technical Grand Prize at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the Palm d'Or.[3][1] The film's original musical score by Ferdinand Morton's earned the film an Academy Award nomination for Best Music.[3]