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IMDb > Pretty Baby (1978)
Pretty Baby
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Pretty Baby (1978)

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User Rating: 6.4/10 (2,373 votes)
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Overview

Director:
Louis Malle
Writers:
Polly Platt (story)
Polly Platt (screenplay) ...
more
Release Date:
5 April 1978 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | History more
Tagline:
In 1917, in the red-light district of New Orleans, they called her "Pretty Baby" more
Plot:
A pre-teen girl grows up in a house of prostitution in the Storyville section of New Orleans in 1917. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 1 nomination more
User Comments:
Beautiful, intelligent, evocative more

Cast

 (Cast overview, first billed only)
Brooke Shields ... Violet
Keith Carradine ... Bellocq
Susan Sarandon ... Hattie
Frances Faye ... Nell
Antonio Fargas ... Professor
Matthew Anton ... Red Top

Diana Scarwid ... Frieda
Barbara Steele ... Josephine
Seret Scott ... Flora
Cheryl Markowitz ... Gussie
Susan Manskey ... Fanny

Laura Zimmerman ... Agnes
Miz Mary ... Odette
Gerrit Graham ... Highpockets
Mae Mercer ... Mama Mosebery
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Additional Details

Runtime:
110 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
MOVIEmeter: ?
V 37% since last week why?

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Dana Plato later claimed that she had been offered the lead role but her mother Kay had turned it down. more
Quotes:
[said to Bellocq twice]
Violet: I love you once. I love you twice. I love you more than beans and rice!
more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful:-
Beautiful, intelligent, evocative, 17 August 2004
Author: michelle lockhart from New York City

Louis Malle did an amazing job of portraying the Storyville life (red light district), and the lives of the women caught up in it. He gets the finest work out of his cast, and demonstrates what it makes him a master filmmaker: not someone who just makes movies to impress other directors, but someone who touches an audience.

He begins and ends the film with the camera slowly closing in on the wide eyes of its child-lead, making you wonder how her life will proceed, having seen what she's seen. It makes you wonder whether marriage, in those times, was any different for a woman than prostitution. Mostly, you have to wonder how Violet could adapt to normal life, with the strange perspective she's had on it so far.

The petulance and "spoiled"ness described in the review below, are merely her childishness, to illustrate that she is an ordinary child in bizarre circumstances. For those not carried away by Shields' appearance, this made the film very poignant -- this child doesn't even know that there is any other way to live.

And the viewer can put away concerns for Shields herself: the nude scenes were done by a body-double, despite what is listed in the "trivia" section of this listing. (I know someone who later worked with the body double.)

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Message Boards

Discuss this title with other users on IMDb message board for Pretty Baby (1978)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Why is this country SO hung up on 'underage' girls? kjf2007-1
Very Bad Ending Lynch04
underage crazymark007
Why is Belloq called 'Papa'? AnnHolway360
Live Free Or Die Hard Fight For Your Freedoms + Privacy jhilario007
nursing baby jen-260
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