A preteen girl lives as a prostitute in New Orleans in 1917.A preteen girl lives as a prostitute in New Orleans in 1917.A preteen girl lives as a prostitute in New Orleans in 1917.
- Director
- Writers
- Polly Platt(story)
- Louis Malle(story)
- Stars
- Director
- Writers
- Polly Platt(story)
- Louis Malle(story)
- Stars
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 2 wins & 6 nominations total
Pat Pierre Perkins
- Ola Mae
- (as Pat Perkins)
- Director
- Writers
- Polly Platt(story) (screenplay)
- Louis Malle(story)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaYears after Brooke Shields starred in the film, she studied French Literature at Princeton University. Ironically, her 1987 senior thesis, written during her final year, was entitled "The Initiation: From Innocence to Experience: The Pre-Adolescent/Adolescent Journey in the Films of Louis Malle, Pretty Baby (1978) and Lacombe, Lucien (1974)", meaning she wrote about a film she herself had starred in.
- GoofsIn one scene, Violet holds a plastic doll as opposed to a composite one. Plastic dolls weren't available until the late 1940s.
- Crazy creditsThe closing credits include a card that states, "With our gratitude for the priceless music of FERDINAND "JELLY ROLL" MORTON."
- Alternate versionsAgainst his own wishes UK censor James Ferman was forced to make minor edits to the original cinema version under the 1978 Protection of Children Act, and pubic hair was optically airbrushed onto a scene where Brooke Shields is sitting with her legs slightly spread so that 'the actual cleft was not visible'. A further cut was also made to remove a very brief shot of her standing up in a bath. The edits were fully waived for the 1987 video release.
- ConnectionsEdited into Chop Suey (2001)
- SoundtracksTiger Rag
(uncredited)
Written by Edwin B. Edwards, Nick LaRocca, Tony Sbarbaro, Henry Ragas and Larry Shields
Performed by Antonio Fargas
Featured review
Can you step outside of yourself for two hours?
"Pretty Baby" (1978): Usually, when a controversial film comes out, the hubbub dies off in a few weeks. Later, people wonder why anyone got upset at all. In this case, I think the opposite is the case. There WAS some buzz about "Pretty Baby" when it premiered in 1978, but NOW? People would be killing the director, photographer, and screen writers in the names of Decency & Righteousness. It's a crazy world. Photographed by Sven Nykvist (Ingmar Bergman's photographer), Louis Malle directed this Polly Platt screenplay about the real life New Orleans documentary photographer E.J. Bellocq. He spent much of his career photographing those no one else would the prostitutes of N.O. - and eventually became involved with a young girl (Brooke Shields) raised by her prostitute single mother (Susan Sarandon), to be a prostitute herself. There's an interesting push/pull to this film. It is SO beautifully photographed, and the prostitutes shown SO human, there is much warmth in the scenes, yet the facts remain difficult to accept life was what it was, and they did what they had to do to survive in the turn-of-the-century South. This is NOT a story of tragedy (except in personal terms that have nothing to do with the profession). Most everyone went about their days in matter-of-fact acceptance of their "station" in life, and did not get ulcers. They had a roof, decent money, good food, servants, and a place to raise their "accident" children. "Pretty Baby" asks you to step outside your contemporary world and standards, and try, just for two hours, to see another point of view. It's an interesting challenge
perhaps more now than even a mere 30 years ago.
helpful•6210
- futures-1
- Jun 5, 2006
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $5,786,368
- Gross worldwide
- $5,786,368
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